Note 18 — II Birth and Education

See however Gardner’s Al-Ghazali in the “Islam Series” (pp. 1-3) where we have this note: “The district of Tus contained four towns, Radkan, Tabaran, Bazdghur, and Nawqan, (Yaqut gives the spelling as Nuqan) and more than 1,000 villages.” (See Yaqut, quoting Misʾar bin Mukhalhil, vol. vi, p. 7. Ibn Khallikan, vol. i, p. 29. Jackson, From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam, p. 267, 284 ff.) Of these four towns, Tabaran was the capital, while Nawqan was the most populous. It was outside of Nawqan that ʿAli bin Musa ar-Rida and Haroun Ar-Rashid were buried. Thus, the present Mashad represents the old Nawqan, and must cover some at least of the site of that city; while the ruins now known as Tus represent the old city of Tabaran, which, having been the capital of the district, was commonly called by the name of the district. It was outside Tabaran that Al-Ghazali and Firdausi were buried. It is a mistake to regard Tus as having been a metropolis containing four boroughs. That there ever existed a city of Tus stretching thirty-five miles, from Mashad to Radkan, is incredible. As-Samʾani, in the Kitabu’l-Ansab, says that Tus contained two towns and over one thousand villages.