Penguins53 at 04:15, 17 November 2014

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{{Coord|32|17|N|48|31|E|region:IR_type:city|display=title}}
{{location map|Iran|label=Gundeshapur|lat_deg=32|lat_min=17|lon_deg=48|lon_min=31|caption=Location of Gundeshapur in [[Iran]]|float=right}}
'''Gondēshāpūr''' was the intellectual center of the [[Sassanid]] empire and the home of the ''[[Academy of Gundishapur]]''.

Founded by [[Sassanid]] king [[Shapur I]], Gundeshapur was home to a teaching hospital, and also comprised a [[library]] and a [[Ancient center of higher learning|centre of higher learning]]. It has been identified with extensive ruins south of Shahabad, a village 14 km south-east of [[Dezful]], to the road for Shush, in the present-day province of [[Khuzestan]], southwest [[Iran]].
It is not an organised archaeological place as of today, and except of the ruins it is full of remainings like broken ceramics.

Despite the fame, recently, some scholars have called Gundeshapur's overall historical importance, specifically, the existence of its hospital, into question.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Dols | first1 = Michael | year = 1987 | title = The Origins of the Islamic Hospital: Myth and Reality | url = | journal = Bulletin of the History of Medicine | volume = 61 | issue = | pages = 367–91 }}</ref>

==Name==
The [[Middle Persian]] word ''Gondēšāpūr'' (or ''Gundēšāpūr'') is a corrupted form. It may be from ''wandēw Šāpūr'', means "acquired by Shapur",<ref>"Gondēshāpūr" in ''[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]''</ref> or from ''Gund-dēz-i Shāpūr'', means "military fortress of Shapur",<ref>[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gondesapur "GONDĒŠĀPUR"] in ''[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]''</ref> or from ''Weh-Andiyok-Shāpūr'', in which ''Andiyok'' means "[[Antioch]]".

In [[Classical Syriac]], the town was called {{lang|syc|ܒܝܬ ܠܦܛ}} ''Bēth Lapaṭ''; in [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Bendosabora''; in {{lang-ar|جنديسابور}} ''Jundaysābūr''; and in New {{lang-fa|گندی‌شاپور}}.

==The Rise of Gundeshapur==

Gundeshapur was one of the major cities in [[Khuzestan]] province of the [[Persian Empire|Persian]] empire. The name Gundeshapur (Pahlavi ''Gund-ī Shāpūr'') comes from the compound term ''Gund-ī Shāpur'' "Army of Shapur". Gundeshapur's administrative district included the neighboring towns of [[Susa]] and Mihrijanqadaq, the latter which was actually in a different province.<ref>Richard Frye, ''The Golden Age of Persia'' (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975), 10-11.</ref> Most scholars believe [[Shapur I of Persia|Shāpur I]], son of [[Ardashir I of Persia|Ardeshir]] (Artaxexes), to have founded the city after defeating a Roman army led by Emperor [[Valerian (emperor)|Valerian]]. Gundeshapur was a garrison town and housed many Roman prisoners of war.

Shāpur I made Gundeshapur his capital. Shāpur's wife, the daughter of Aurelian, lived in the capital with him. She brought with her two Greek physicians who settled in the city and taught Hippocratic medicine. Shāpur also encouraged scholars from Persia and India to settle in his capital.<ref>Dols, 367-368.</ref>

In 489, the [[Nestorianism|Nestorian]] theological and scientific center in [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]] was ordered closed by the [[Byzantine empire|Byzantine emperor]] [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]], and transferred itself to become the [[School of Nisibis]]<ref>[http://www.ut.ac.ir/en/main-links/historical.htm University of Tehran Overview/Historical Events]</ref> or Nisibīn, then under Persian rule with its secular faculties at Gundeshapur, [[Khuzestan]]. Here, scholars, together with Pagan philosophers banished from [[Athens]] by [[Justinian]] in 529, carried out important research in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics".<ref>Donald Hill, ''Islamic Science and Engineering''. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993), 4.</ref>

It was under the rule of the [[Sassanid]] monarch [[Khosrau I|Khusraw]] I (531-579 CE), called ''Anushiravan'' "The Immortal" and known to the Greeks and Romans as Chosroes, that Gundeshapur became known for medicine and erudition. Khusraw I gave refuge to various Greek [[philosophers]], [[Church of the East|Nestorian]] [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] fleeing religious persecution by the [[Byzantine empire]].

The king commissioned the refugees to translate Greek and [[Syriac]] texts into [[Pahlavi Zoroastrian Middle Persian|Pahlavi]]. They translated various works on medicine, astronomy, astrology, philosophy, and useful crafts.

''Anushiravan'' also turned towards the east, and sent the famous physician [[Burzoe|Borzouye]] to invite Indian and Chinese scholars to Gundeshapur. These visitors translated Indian texts on astronomy, astrology, mathematics and medicine and Chinese texts on herbal medicine and religion. Borzouye is said to have himself translated the ''[[Panchatantra|Pañcatantra]]'' from Sanskrit into Persian as ''Kelile væ Demne''.

Many [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] settled in Gundeshapur during the Fifth century. The Assyrians were most of all medical doctors from [[Urfa]], which was during that time, home to the leading medical center.<ref>http://rnb.uin.googlepages.com/v22n2spring2005.pdf</ref> Teaching in the Academy was done in [[Syriac]] until the city fell to Muslim Arab armies.<ref>R. Frye, ed., ''Cambridge History of Iran'', (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), vol. 4, 397.</ref>

== Gundeshapur under Muslim rule ==
The Sassanid dynasty fell to Muslim Arab armies in 638 CE. The academy survived the change of rulers and persisted for several centuries as a Muslim institute of higher learning. It was later rivalled by an institute established at the [[Abbasid]] capital of [[Baghdad]]. In 832 CE, [[Caliph]] [[Al-Ma'mun|al-Ma'mūn]] founded the famous ''Baytu l-Hikma'', the [[House of Wisdom]]. There the methods of Gundeshapur were emulated; indeed, the House of Wisdom was staffed with graduates of the older Academy of Gundeshapur. It is believed that the House of Wisdom was disbanded under [[Al-Mutawakkil]], Al-Ma'mūn's successor. However, by that time the intellectual center of the Abbasid Caliphate had definitively shifted to Baghdad, as henceforth there are few references in contemporary literature to universities or hospitals at Gundeshapur.

Gundeshapur, in this time, became a major link between Iranian and Greek medicine, because of its previous practices of combining the Greek, Indian, and Iranian medical traditions. Gundeshapur was a site where the traditions of [[Galen]] and [[Hippocrates]] had been preserved, therefore the transition from ancient to Islamic tradition was more coherent.<ref>Frye, ''Cambridge History of Iran'', 388-89.</ref> This combination "foreshadowed the synthesis that was to be achieved in later Islamic medicine."<ref>''Ibid.'', 414.</ref>

== Recent academic doubts ==

Some scholars have cast doubts on the existence of the hospital at Gundeshapur by claiming that there are no known surviving Persian sources "that would corroborate the claims that [Gundeshapur] played a crucial role in medical history".<ref>Dols, 369.</ref> It has been assumed that a medical center at Gundeshapur would have resembled the [[School of Nisibis]]. What is more likely is there existed a seminary, like the one in Nisibis, where medical texts were read, and an infirmary, where Galenic medicine was practiced.<ref>''Ibid.'', 377.</ref>

Additionally, Gundeshapur's reputation may have been conflated with that of [[Susa]], a city to the west of Gundeshapur and with which Gundesahur was administratively linked. Ath-Tha 'ālibi, a scholar with access to Sassanian royal annals, says of pre-Islamic Persia:
''Thus, the people of [Susa] became the most skilled in medicine of the people of Ahwāz and Fārs because of their learning from the Indian doctor [who was brought to Susa by Shāhpur 1] and from the Greek prisoners who lied close to them; then [the medical knowledge] was handed down from generation to generation.''<ref>''Ibid.'', 378.</ref> In the other hand, the same source might be another confirmation of the medical reputation of Gundeshapur as [[Susa]] may represent the whole local region which included Gundeshapur (as they were administratively linked). This is enforced by the fact that Ahwāz and Fārs, mentioned in the quote for comparison to [[Susa]], were regions as well, an indication that regions were being compared.

== See also ==
* [[Science in Iran|Science in Persia]]
* [[List of hospitals in Iran]]
* [[School of Nisibis]]
* [[Sarouyeh]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Dols | first1 = Michael W. | year = 1987 | title = The Origins of the Islamic Hospital: Myth and Reality | url = | journal = Bulletin of the History of Medicine | volume = 61 | issue = | pages = 367–91 }}
* Elgood, Cyril. ''A Medical History of Persia''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951.
* [[Richard Nelson Frye|Frye, Richard Nelson]]. ''The Golden Age of Persia''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975.
*[[Richard Nelson Frye|Frye, Richard Nelson]], ed. ''The Cambridge History of Iran''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Hau | first1 = Friedrun R. | year = 1979 | title = Gondeschapur: eine Medizinschule aus dem 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr | url = | journal = Gesnerus | volume = XXXVI | issue = | pages = 98–115 }}
* Piyrnia, Mansoureh. ''Salar Zanana Iran''. Maryland: Mehran Iran Publishing, 1995.
*Hill, Donald. ''Islamic Science and Engineering''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993.

{{Khuzestan Province}}

[[Category:271 establishments]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 3rd century]]
[[Category:Assyrian settlements]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Khuzestan Province]]
[[Category:Persian words and phrases]]

Gundeshapur - Revision history

Penguins53 at 04:15, 17 November 2014