'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎341] (372/582)

VISIT TO THE RUINS OF SHAPOOR.
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found a large square enclosure, called the Mesjid, or Mosque.
The interior of the open space presented two portions of wall
belonging to some small edifice of ancient date, the plan of which
could not be traced. It had since been built on by more modern
and inferior works. Close to this were the fragments of two
pillars; the shafts of which were plain, formed of many small
divisions, and about three feet in diameter, but no capitals were
near. The exterior wall of this enclosure was of very inferior
masonry ; and from loop-holes in the top, and the appearance of
a parapet there, it seemed to have been once used as a fort. Its
dimensions were about a hundred feet square. There was near
this the domed sepulchre of an Imam Zade, whose name we
did not learn ; and among the tombs of those around it were
some of five, and others of three hundred years old, the inscrip
tions of which were in Arabic. The dead were called by our
companions ^hapoori,' or natives of Shapoor. This, however,
throws no light on the latest date to which the city itself existed,
as the people inhabiting the plain are still called Shapoori, and
are still interred near the tomb of this revered saint. #
We went from hence to gain the main road by striking across
the cultivated land in a south-easterly direction, and our way
was full of difficulties from the canals and bushes which impeded
it. We were in some degree rewarded by being thrown on two
small fire altars, which lay detached from every other portion of
ruin, and bore exactly south-east, distant about a quarter of a mile
from the supposed fort that we had left.
* In the reign of Baharam, the son of Hoormuz, and grandson of Shahpoor, the city of
this name appears to have been the capital of the empire. It was then that the celebrated
Mani, the founder of the sect of the Manicheans, flourished; atad in a book called Ertang, he
endeavoured to reconcile the doctrines of the Metempsychosis, as taught by the Hindoos, and
the two principles of Good and Evil of Zoroaster, with the tenets of the Christian religion. He
returned to a cavern, after the fashion of impostors, and brought out from thence paintings
and writings, which he pretended to have received from Heaven, and called himself the Para
clete, or Comforter, promised by Jesus to follow him ; but he and all his disciples were at length
put to death by Baharam, and the skin of the impostor was stripped off, and hung up at the
gate of the city of Shapoor.— History of Persia, vol. i. p. 101.