Gundeshapur (Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭧𐭩𐭠𐭭𐭣𐭩𐭥𐭪𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Weh-Andiōk-Ŝābuhr; New Persian: گندی‌شاپور, Gondēshāpūr) was the intellectual centre of the Sasanian Empire founded by the Sasanian emperor Shapur I. Gundeshapur was home to a teaching hospital and had a library and an ancient higher-learning institution, the Academy of Gondishapur. It has been identified with extensive ruins south of Jandi Shapur, a village 14 km southeast of Dezful, along the road to Shushtar in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.

The city declined after the Muslim conquest of Persia; the city surrendered in 638. It continued to remain an essential centre in the Islamic period. Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, the founder of the Saffarid dynasty, made Gundeshapur his residence three years before his sudden death in 879. His tomb became one of the most prominent sites in the city.

The Middle Persian word Gondēšāhpūr (or Gonde Šāhpur) may be from the Persian expression wandēw Šāhpur, means "acquired by Shapur", or from Gund-dēz-ī Shāpūr, means "military fortress of Shapur", or from Weh-Andiyok-Shāpūr, "Better-than-Antioch of Shapur". It is known as Gondēshāpūr (گندی‌شاپور) in New Persian.

In Syriac, the town was called ܒܝܬ ܠܦܛ Bēth Lapaṭ sometimes rendered as Bethlapeta in English, in Greek Bendosabora; and in Arabic: جنديسابور, romanized: Jundaysābūr.

After his conquest of the Roman city of Antioch in 256, the Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) Shapur I founded the city of Gundeshapur, situated between Susa and Shushtar. The city, constructed as a place to settle Roman prisoners of war, subsequently became a Sasanian royal winter residence and the capital of the Khuzistan province. Gundeshapur was one of the four main cities of the province, along with Susa, Karka d-Ledan, and Shushtar. Gundeshapur was mainly inhabited by Christians, and served as the East-Syrian metropolitan see of Bet Huzaye.

Most scholars believe Shāpur I, son of Ardashir I (Artaxexes), founded the city after defeating a Roman army led by 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.

In 489, the Eastern Christian theological and scientific center in Edessa was ordered closed by the Byzantine emperor Zeno, and relocated as the School of Nisibis or Nisibīn, then under Persian rule with its secular faculties at Gundeshapur. Here, scholars, together with pagan philosophers banished from Athens by Justinian I in 529, carried out significant research in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics".