'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎261] (300/714)

FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN m
numerous ditches and banks show that the whole country is under
ZTTi ts "T™ of tIie graiI1 sown is said to ^; bt.
e chief local products are now rice, opium, and tobacco. Ferrier
who passed tins way forty-five years ago at a more favourable season
Ot h year, spoke qurte enthusiastically of its charms. 'Never
I before seen in Persia such rich and luxuriant vegetation ■
and as the eye revelled in contemplating it, I could understand
1 1 f" v'T ' y preddeotion which ancient sovereigns
had for Nishapur.' ^veieigns
The shattered walls and towers of Nishapur—' the Nisava or
Jusoa blessed by Ormuzd, the birthplace of the Dionysus of Greek
Nishapnr ^ one <* the" paradises" of Iran '-with the
. roo f and minar of a lofty mosque looming above them
were visible long before we reached the city. Passing through an
extensive cemetery whose untidy graves were typical of the squalor
that environs death as well as life in Persia, and skirting the town
011 the southern side, we came to the Aapar-lchaneh, imme
diately outside the western gate. The walls of the city, which
ad at one time been lofty, were in a more tumbledown condition
e^ ® n * }a ' 1 tllose of ^uohan. Great gaps occurred every fifty yards
and whole sections had entirely disappeared. In one place, how
ever, men were at work rebuilding a bastion, lumps of clay being
ng ou o a trench at the bottom and tossed from hand to hand
un 1 ley reached the top, where they were loosely piled one upon
e other; though what purpose this belated renovation can have
been intended to serve, I am utterly at a loss to imagine. An
enemy could march into Nishapur as easily as he could march
down Brompton Road, and would find about as much to reward
mm as if he occupied in force Brompton Cemetery.
The name Nishapnr is popularly derived from (reed) or
m-no (new) and Shapur, the tradition being that Shapur built
radtoT ^ t0 . Wn aneW ' or b"' 1 ' 14 in what bad been a reed-bed.
_ ihe citj was older, however, than Shapur, its Wtidary
oundation being attributed to Tahmuras, one of the Pishdadian
smgs fourth m descent from Noah ; and its true derivation is from
mw (the modern Persian nikj = good, and Shapur. This town is said
to have been destroyed by Alexander the Great, and subsequently
rebuilt either by Shapur I. or by Shapur Zulaktaf(the two are con-
s ant y confused in Persian tradition), who is further said to have
erected here a huge statue of himself, which remained standing till