, the most important of the four great cities of K̲h̲urāsān (Nīs̲h̲āpūr, Marw, Harāt and Balk̲h̲), one of the great towns of Persia in the Middle Ages.

The name goes back to the Persian Nēw-S̲h̲āhpūr (“Fair S̲h̲āpūr”); in Armenian it is called Niu-S̲h̲apuh, Arab. Naysābūr or Nīsābūr, New Pers. Nēs̲h̲āpūr, pronounced in the time of Yāḳūt Nīs̲h̲āwūr, now Nīs̲h̲āpūr (Nöldeke, Ṭabarī , 59, n. 3; G. Hoffmann, Auszüge …, 61, n. 530). The town occasionally bore the official title of honour, Īrāns̲h̲ahr.

Nīs̲h̲āpūr was founded by S̲h̲āhpūhr I, son of Ardas̲h̲īr I (Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, …