'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎306v] (631/820)

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Nishapilr, and there killed. In the history of the latter Sassanians,
Nishapur is seldom mentioned, and when the’Arabs came to Khorasan,
Nishapur must have been very unimportant ; for as Tabari relates,
it did not even have a garrison. Merv was at that time the capital of
Khorasan. Under the Tabaris (A. H. 205-259 ; A. D. 820—872), Nishapur
became a flourishing town. Abu Tahir-ibn-i-Husain, the first sultan
of the Tahiri dynasty, who died in A. D. 822, built a palace at
Nishapur in the garden of Mian. To judge from the many coins of the
8amani dynasty bearing the mint mark of Nishapur, the town must
have been an important place under the Samanis. The first ruler of
the Saljuk dynasty—Tughral Beg—made Nishapur his residence in
A. D. 1037, and his son, King Alp Arslan, had the palace of Shadiakh
built for his son Malik Shah, on the occasion of the latter’s marriage
with the daughter of the Great Khan in the year 1072. The
meaning of the word shddidkh is most likely Shadi Kakh, i.e.,
“ castle of pleasure. ” Arslan Arghun, a brother of Malik Shah,
destroyed the fortress Kuhandiz in 1096, and in 1153, when Sultan
San jar reigned over Khorasan, the Ghaz overran the country and
destroyed the town and suburb, and massacred many of the inhabi
tants. A1 Muayid Aina or Aiba, one of Sanjar’s mamdliks, expelled
the Ghaz in 1159 and occupied Nish'pur. In 1161, to put an end to the
continual quarrels between Sunni and Shi’ah sectarians of Nishapur,
Muaiyad had the leaders of both parties executed, destroyed all mosques
and colleges, and burnt all libraries ; ' Shadiakh became his residence.
Nishapur thus became suburb and Shadiakh became town, and was
also called Shahr-i-Muaiyadi, i.e., the town of Muaiyad. It was this
Muaiyad who killed the last Saljuk, Rukn-ud-Din Muhammad, a
nephew of Sanjar, and he himself was killed in 1174 near Khvarazm by
Takish Khan Khvarazmshah. From then until the beginning of the
thirteenth century Nishapur is hardly ever mentioned as a town ; Shadiakh
is the capital of the province of Nishapur. Takish Khan Khvarazm
shah besieged Shadiakh in 1189, and in the year 1208, according to
Hamdulla KazvinI, a terrible earthquake destroyed the whole town. It
is curious that Yaqut, who visited the place in 1216, and who resided at
Shad^akh, does not mention the destruction of the town eight years before.
The whole town cannot have been destroyed in 1208 ; for, if it had been
destroyed, the Moghuls, who came in 1221, would have had no difficulty
in taking it ; but we know the town offered much resistance, in fact was
only taken after three days’ assault. This time, however, the town was
completely destroyed. The historians relate that the daughter of Chingiz,
to revenge herself on the Nishapuris for having killed her husband
Taghajar or Takachar, had the town levelled to the ground and made into
a vast barley field. All the inhabitants—historians give the incredible
number of 1,747,000—were massacred. Shadiakh now disappears from the
pages of history. Nishapur was rebuilt, to be soon after, in 1269, partly
destroyed by Moghuls under Marghaul, and in 1280 by another earthquake.
In 1294, when Ghazan Khan came to Nishapur, he camped close to the town
at a place called A1 Muaiyadi, evidently the place were A1 Muaiyad resided
in 1161, the site of Shadiakh. The town was probably rebuilt at this