Heritage sites, Archaeological discoveries, History of Archaeology

Jondi Shapur

Location

Khuzestan

Country

Iran

Year of Research

271 CE

Culture

Gondeshapur was the world earliest known teaching hospital, and also has a library and a university.

It has been known with extensive ruins south of Shahabad, a village 14 km south east of Dezful in the present day state of Khuzestan, southwest Iran, not away from the Karun river.Gondeshapur was one of the biggest cities in Khuzestan province of the Persian empire.

It was under the rule of the Sassanid monarch Khusraw 531-579 CE , called Anushiravan The Immortal and known to the Greeks and Romans as Chosroes, that Gondeshapur became known for medicine and erudition. Khusraw I gave refuge to various Greek philosophers, Nestorian Assyrians fleeing religious persecution by the Byzantine empire.

The Sassanids had long war with the Romans and Byzantines for control of present day Iraq and Syria and were naturally disposed to welcome the refugees.

The king commissioned the refugees to translate Greek and Syriac texts into Pahlavi.Various works on medicine, astronomy, astrology, philosophy, and useful crafts were Translated.

The philosophers are said to have been unhappy in Persia, however, and later returned to Greece.