He said:
"The non-Arabs of Isfahan are the Quraysh of the non-Arabs."
Al-Salafī likewise transmitted, with a well-known chain, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salamah al-Mājishūn, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, who said: "If I were not of Quraysh, I would wish to be from Persia—then I would wish to be from Isfahan."
Another chain also relates from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab that he said: "Had I not been a man of Quraysh, I would have wished to be from Isfahan, because the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, ‘If the religion were suspended near the Pleiades, men from Persia, from among the non-Arabs, would seize it; the people most favored in that regard are Persia and Isfahan.’"
They added: Salman al-Fārisī was from Isfahan, as was ʿIkrimah, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—along with others. The marks of Islam were more evident in Isfahan than elsewhere, so much so that the ḥadīth scholar ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Rahāwī said, "After Baghdad, I have not seen a city with more ḥadīth than Isfahan."
(1) I could not locate the work entitled Fadl al-Furs, nor did I find this wording in any of the other sources I consulted.
(2) This refers to: ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Salama al-Majishun, a Medinan who later lived in Baghdad and a client of the Al Hudayr family. Ibn Hajar says in al-Taqrib: “Reliable, a jurist and author, from the seventh generation.” His reports are found in all six canonical collections, and he died in 164 AH/780 CE. See Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:510, no. 1231. MS (T) vocalises the nisba as al-Majishuni.
(3) This is Usama ibn Zayd al-Laythi; see the Index of Names.
(4) Cited by Abu Nuaym in his Dhikr Akhbar Isbahan with his chain of transmission, 1:38–39.
(5) MSS (J, D) read: “from Persia.”
(6) A hadith with a similar isnad was documented above (p. 413); see also Abu Nuaym, Dhikr Akhbar Isbahan 1:38–39.
(7) This is ʿAbd al-Qadir ibn ʿAbd Allah, a client of the Fahmi tribe, originally from Ruhā and later from Harran, a hafiz of hadith and prolific author, among whose works is al-Arbaʿin al-Mutabayina al-Isnad wa-l-Bilad fi-l-Hadith. He died in 612 AH/1215 CE. See al-Aʿlam by al-Zirikli 4:40.