Reconstructing NĪSĀBŪRĪ's Early Education

In Nishapur, probably around 1270, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn Nizām al-Dīn al-A'raj al-Nīsābūrī was born to a Shiite family that came originally from Qom, in what is now Iran. ¹ Nishapur ² was the principle town of the province of Khorasan (in present-day Iran) and it enjoyed an illustrious history during the early centuries of Islam through the eleventh century that has attracted the attention of modern scholars. ³ The Seljuqs made Nishapur their first capital, and it benefitted from irrigated agriculture and trade. ⁴ With an earthquake in 1145, plunder by the Ghuzz in 1154–5, and then another earthquake in 1209, the city's fortunes went into a decline. The Mongols' 1221 invasion sealed Nishapur's fate; it never regained its earlier prominence. ⁵ Among subsequent tragedies, Nishapur was devastated by an earthquake in either 1268 or 1270, and then by another in 1280, in which 10,000 reportedly died. ⁶ If it was not the dominant city that it once had been, it nevertheless remained a center of culture. It continued as a site of mints for Mongol currency from 660 AH (1261–2) until 703 AH (1303– 4). ⁷ In the fourteenth century, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa would praise its numerous schools and report that the city was called “Little Damascus” due to its gardens, water, fruits, and beauty. ⁸