Neyshabur is an eastern Islamic city which enjoyed a prominent position in science and its development and spread in certain periods of Islamic era. The attention paid by great scholars to this city and even selecting it as their place of living had turned Neyshabur into one of the most important scientific centers of those periods. The prominent status of Neyshabur in antiquity had caused well-known geographers such as Yaghut al-Himawi to write comprehensive reports on this city.
Yaghut al-Himawi has included the history and various developments of the city in “Mu‘jam ul-Buldan” and written about the biography of scholars, thinkers and literary figures of the city in “Mu‘jam ul-Udaba’.” This arrangement has created one of the richest reports about the city of Neyshabur. The presence of thinkers and opinion-makers from the 4th century (A.H.L.) onwards added to the scientific prosperity of the city making it reach its zenith of success just before the Mongol invasion.
A review of the status of the city of Neyshabur in the aforementioned centuries and finding the reasons and ways and means of its scientific development by browsing through the Yaghut al-Himawi’s writings are among the objectives of this paper.
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