Nishapur or Nishabur (Persian: نیشاپور, also Romanized as Nīshāpūr, Nīshābūr, and Neyshābūr), is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad. Nishapur derived its name from its alleged founder, the Sasanian king Shapur.
The region's economy is largely agricultural, based on grain and cotton, and it is also the second industrial city in Khorasan, and it is one of the most prosperous localities in Iran, although somewhat blighted by drug smuggling from nearby Afghanistan. It had a population of 205,972 people according to 2006 census. The main east-west railway line through Iran passes through the town. The region is very prone to earthquakes, with the most recent significant ones occurring in 1986 and 1997.
Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (1145-1146 - c. 1221; Persian: ابو حمید ابن ابوبکر ابراهیم), better known by his pen-names Farīd ud-Dīn (فریدالدین) and ‘Attār (عطار - "the perfumer"), was a Persian Muslim poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nīshāpūr who had an abiding influence on Persian poetry and Sufism.
Information about Attar's life is rare. He is mentioned by only two of his contemporaries, `Awfi and Tusi. However, all sources confirm that he was from Nishapur, a major city of medieval Khorasan (now located in the northeast of Iran), and according to `Awfi, he was a poet of the Seljuq period. It seems that he was not well known as a poet in his own lifetime, except at his home town, and his greatness as a mystic, a poet, and a master of narrative was not discovered until the 15th century.
`Attar was probably the son of a prosperous chemist, receiving an excellent education in various fields. While his works say little else about his life, they tell us that he practiced the profession of pharmacy and personally attended to a very large number of customers. The people he helped in the pharmacy used to confide their troubles in `Attar and this affected him deeply. Eventually, he abandoned his pharmacy store and traveled widely - to Baghdad, Basra, Kufa, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Khwarizm, Turkistan, and India, meeting with Sufi Shaykhs - and returned promoting Sufi ideas.
Eldar Bahram oglu Mansurov (born 28 February 1952, Baku, Azerbaijan) is an Azerbaijani musician, composer and songwriter.
He is the son of musician Bahram Mansurov. His younger brother Elkhan Mansurov is also a musician.
Eldar Mansurov learned to play the piano in 1968-1972 under the supervision of Asaf Zeynally and in 1974-1979 he studied at the Uzeyir Hajibeyov Azerbaijan State Conservatory under the supervision of Jovdat Hajiyev.
He has taken part in many classical, as well as popular concerts and has written the soundtrack for a number of films and theatre productions as well as the songs "Bayatılar" and "Bahramnameh".
"Bayatılar", lyrics by Vahid Aziz and music by Eldar Mansurov was performed by Brilliant Dadashova and was released in Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Europe (including Turkey, Greece, Germany, Spain, France), the Arab World and Brazil. The song was used in versions and samples by Turkish DJ Hüseyn Karadayı and Cem Nadiran (in the album "Miracles") and Greek DJ Pantelis (in the album "I Have A Dream (Extended Mix"). "Bayatılar" is the basis of the refrain of the 2009 Euro-dance "Stereo Love" by Romanian musicians Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina. A copyright dispute over the song resulted in Maya acknowledging that the refrain in his song was actually taken from Mansurov's Bayatılar.