Mother of Iranian science |
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" Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race.Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book. "
Victor Hugo
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"Emam zade mahrugh" mosque
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Years and years ago, on a fertile area lying at foots of "Binalud "mountains, some Iranians made a small city, which became mother of Iranian science.
The city built up on basis of agriculture and merchants from all over the world who were traveling to the area thorough the old silk road. every where there was ring bells of caravan's camels..
There was many schools; Streets were full of students and their scientific and philosophical arguments. City was land of mystics and Sufism .
The first Iranian university-Jondy Shapoor -was built , and Seljugh dynasty chose the area as their residence .The city could even compete with Cairo and Baghdad.
.. but,
Disasters came after each other. Earth quakes, famine and drought..
Mongols invaded it and killed all the population and ruined and burnt all the buildings and farms. May be this city has been ruined and rebuilt more than any place in the world!
But glorious Neyshabour resisted all !
it did not vanish, and is not going to end, any time..
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when I opened my eyes, we had passed half of Mashhad-Neyshabour road.
50Km was left and I could see the beautiful mountains who were more like a painting, very colorful.Layers of red ,gray and light brown vanishing in purple soil showed the special Geologic structure of the area.
Later, Binaloud mount ,higher abovethe others was full of snow_ though being in June.
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As much as we got closer to Neyshabour; farms replaced gardens full of trees.
also number of factories increased. (Neyshabour gardens are very famous for their beauty,their name is used in many Iranian poems )
after we passed the police station ,we begun a road which was then becoming main street of the city : Emam Khomeini street .
Before residential region begin, a minor road takes apart and goes to a place called "Aram_gah" which is a vast area containing tombs of Attar, Omar Khayyam, Kamal-al-molk and Neyshabour's cemetery.
In the entrance of Aram_gah , there are two beautiful pillars who are showing that this place is special. (As it is burier of some most glorious Iranian scientists ,poets and artists).The pillars are very famous because a man named "Akhavan" used to gather small pieces of brick (what is usually known as rubbish in a house building project) and created miracles of beauty from them!
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The road then devides to 3 ,one road goes to the cemetery and others lead to tombs of Khayyam and Attar. Here ,for appreciation of Khayyam, an observatory and Neyshabour's mathematics house is made.The cemetery is a beautiful mosque called "Emamzade mahrugh".There, around the mosque ,some rooms are surrouding the area on a circle. Each room belongs to one of neyshaburi families.
(all members of a family are buried in the same place ,for example in the room belonging to my family, my great grand parents , my uncles, my cousins and other close relatives are buried )
What attracts attention is calmness and silence of this area with a cool slight wind that passes among the bushy trees and makes nice sounds .but on Thursdays and Fridays here is very crowded because Iranians believe they must "meet" those who passed away on the last days of the week (in Iran Friday is holiday and weeks begins by Saturday).
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In the other part of Aramgah ,you find 3 beautiful tombs.
one belongs to Khayyam, (born in1048 ) who was a great mathematician, astronomer & a famous poet.I present translation of one of his short poems :"time passed and we changed from a child to a master, time passed and we were happy of this mastership..but look at the end and learn the lesson : we were created from soil and we came back to it !" (meaning that material life is not important, soul is the aim of creation )
Farid-aldin-attar (1119-1220) was a famous mystic in Neyshabour.
he was a druggist & a good doctor.He is of most ancient poets of iran.There is a nice story about Attar that says, Attar was living simply until he met a sufy .(suffies have high spiritual abilities & can do miracles depending on their stage).Attar asks the sufy to show him how a sufy is not afraid of death ,the sufy smiles at him, layes on the earth and dies in the moment!!This touched Attar very deep ,he started Sufism & became a great mystic.
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the old Inn of neyshabour
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kamal-al-molk (Mohammad-e-ghaffary) ,is the most famous Iranian painter who was the one who introduced European classical realism into Persian painting styles.his fantastic paintings are kept in a museum in Tehran.
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Neysahbour has 3 good hotels, I think "Mellat" is the best. There are many restaurants easy to find.you can reach the city directly by train, or you can come to mashhad by plane & then by bus reach neyshabour through Mashhad-Nesyhabour road which is about 105 Km.Neyshabour has almost saved it's old texture.Number of apartments is still few.Emam Khomeini street devides it into 2 parts;northern and southern.This street ,in small intervals have some squares. this part of the city is always so crowded, passengers, shops, cars, and bicycles busy in daily life.
Walking along the so called street,it leads you to the old Inn of Neyshabour, remained from the time of the old silk road..
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Inn is precisely a good symbol of Iranian architecture in which sharp angles is being avoided.In the past anciant neyshabour was far from the Inn, so the Inn was located in desert on the old silk road and passengers used it to keep safe from wolves and thiefs.
There is a corridor in the entrance with a wonderful roof (see it in my slideshow about Neyshabour).then it opens to a lovely yard surrounded by many rooms ( "soffe" is the Persian name of them).these rooms were hired by passengers and caravans.
Nowadays rooms have became shops.each shop presents one type of Iranian arts.
One shop sells traditional khorasani dress (in the past each province of iran had its special style of dressing),another one presents fantastic tableau of nice scenes made by wood (the Iranian art of"monabbat kari ", maybe inlay or fretting in English )
Some shop present traditional Iranian products such as "Geeveh"(kind of shoe), "Jajim"(kind of small carpet ) and"Terme"(Iranian cloth ).
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kuzeh,in the past iranians used them to keep water cool
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there is another shop who presents jewels made by a special blue beautiful stone that is taken from Neyshabour mines, called "feeroozeh"
In another room, you may find some Iranian musical instruments such as: Tar, Dotar, Setar, Kamanche and Tambour.
khorasan has its own melodies and Dotar is local musical instrument of khorasan used to play "maghami" music.Maghami music has a mystic tone ,as it comes from hearts of people who were most sufy and mystics.When you listen to it, the music takes you to a deep meditation.
There is also a traditional teashop and a museum of animals inside the Inn.The picture you see in this part and the above one are taken from the shops.
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a vew from a square to the city
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Along the Emam khomeini street, beside the first square you reach the only cinema of Neyshabour.A bit farer you find the "bazaar" for vegetables and fruit.
There villagers and people are talking about the prices, selling and buying their goods.
If you listen to what people say ,you will hear neyshabouri accent of speech ,it is kind of Persian but very different ,and difficult to understand even for khorasani strangers.
There is also main bazaar in the city which is very old.Also the main mosque of the city (masjed-e-jame)is a nice building from seljugh time .
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yaghma's tomb (he was a famous poet)
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Around the city there are many gardens and towns with fresh air and cool weather.
there are some waterfalls near Neyshabour as well.
one of the towns has a speciality ,it has a story!
Ghadamgah ,(which recently became a city ) is the place that have a river .
People believe this river can heal disease. the story says that when "Emam Reza" [8th holy leader of muslims] visited Neyshabour and ghadamgah, under the stone he stood upon ,a river appeared. that stone with footstep of him is still kept in the town.
Another interesting place in Neyshabour is wooden mosque .it is made by only small pieces of wood. The remains of the ancient Neyshabour still exist out of the city and is under exploration.
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Published on Sunday May 7th, 2006 by farnaz
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