Mashhad
Mashhad (مشهد in Persian, is also spelt Meshed). It is the second largest city in Iran located 850 kilometers East of Tehran, Iran (Persia), and the center of the province of Razavi Khorasan. It is also home to the Mashhad Airbase (formerly Imam Reza airbase), jointly a military installation housing Mirage aircraft, and a civilian international airport.
History
The city was founded around 823 CE, and its name derives from mashhad-e-reza, "place of martyrdom". It is a reference to the death of Imam Reza, the Eighth Imam of Shi'ite Islam, who is believed by members of the Shi'ia sect to have been poisoned there upon orders of Caliph Al Ma'mun. Before his death the place was a small village by the name of Sanabad. A shrine was built there to commemorate the Imam, and gradually the town grew around it. Among the first major buildings was a mausoleum built by Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi. Today the holy shrine and its museum hold one of the most extensive cultural and artistic treasurers of Iran, in particular manuscript books and paintings. Several important theological schools are associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.
It is a city of great religious significance, and a place of pilgrimage. It is said that the rich go to Mecca but the poor journey to Mashhad. Thus, even as those who complete the pilgrimage to Mecca receive the title of Haji, those who make the pilgrimage to Mashhad – and especially to the Imam Reza shrine – are known as Mashtee, a term employed also of its inhabitants. It is thought that over 12 million Moslems a year make the pilgrimage to Mashhad.
Besides its religious significance, Mashhad has played an important political role as well. It saw its greatest glory under Nadir Shah, ruler of Iran from 1736 to 1747 and great benefactor of the Imam Reza shrine, who made the city his capital.
Though primarily a Muslim city, Mashhad has harbored a number of religious minorities over the centuries. Among these were the Jews, who were forcibly converted in 1839. After their "conversion" they were known as "Jadid al-Islam," or "New of Islam." However, in truth they lived an double life: outwardly, they conformed to Islamic ways, but inwardly they preserved a Jewish identity and Jewish traditions.
In 1912, the sanctuary of the Imam Reza was bombed by the Russian forces, causing widespread and persisting resentment in the Shiite Muslim world.
Geography and climate
The city is located located at 36.41º latitude and 52.39 º east longitude, between the two mountain ranges of Binalood and Hezarmasjed, and benefits from their proximity. The city's climatic condition varies from very cold winters, pleasant springs, and usually mild summers, to beautiful autumns.
Demographics
Mashhad has a population of more than 2.5 million, consisting of people of Iranian, Arab, and Afghan descent, among others.
Culture
Long a center of secular as well as of religious learning, Mashhad has been a center for the arts and for the sciences. The famed Ferdowsi University[1], named after the great Iranian poet, is located here.
Mashhad is also home to one of the oldest libraries of the Middle-East called the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi with a history of over six centuries. The Astan-e Quds Razavi Museum, which is part of the Astan-e Qods Razavi Complex, is home to over 70,000 rare manuscripts from various historical eras. There are some six million historical documents in the foundation’s central library.
In 1569 (977 H), `Imad al-Din Mas`ud Shirazi, a physician at the Mashhad hospital, wrote the earliest Islamic treatise on syphilis, one influenced by European medical thought.
Tourist attractions
The second largest holy city of the world, Mashhad attracts more than 15 million tourists and pilgrims every year, and has been a magnet for travellers since medieval times, when the famous world traveller Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta visited the town in his travels.
Imam Reza (the eighth Shi'ite Imam) is buried in this city.
Apart from a number of large beautiful parks and the tombs of historical celebrities in nearby Tus and Neyshabour, the tomb of Nadir Shah and Kooh Sangi parks are also noteworthy sights.
There are also some locations outside the city: the tomb of Khajeh Morad kilometers from Mashhad along the road to Tehran; the tomb of Khajeh Rabi' located 6 kilometers north of the city where there are some inscriptions by the renowned Safavid calligrapher Reza Abbasi; and the tomb of Khajeh Abasalt in a distance of 20 kilometers from Mashhad along the road to Neishabur. (The three personalities were the disciples of Imam Reza).
Among the other sights are the tomb of the great poet Ferdowsi in Tus, 24 kilometers away from Mashhad; and the Summer resorts at Torghabeh, Torogh, Akhlamad, Zoshk, and Shandiz.
The Shah Public Bath, built in 1648 during the Safavid era and designed according to the architecture of that period, was recently restored, and will be turned into a museum.
Current events
In current years, the event to have had the largest impact on Mashhad was the bombing of the Imam Reza shrine on June 20, 1994, killing twenty six and wounding many more. The bombing was carried out by Mr. Mehdi Nahvi, a member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MKO), an Iraqi-based opposition group which claimed responsibility. The MKO stated that the bombing was carried out to commemorate the anniversary of the group's founding on 20 June, 1981.
Mashhad once again came under the national spotlight in 2001 during the "spider serial killer" events, in which 19 women were mudered.
In 1998 and again in 2003 Mashhad was the scene of tensions during student unrests echoing similar tensions in Tehran.
Also in 2003, according to the Quds newspaper, the supreme court of the Islamic regime of Iran sentenced four people to stoning in the city. In addition to the death sentence, all four were also sentenced to lashes and imprisonment.
In the summer of 2005 Mashhad became a locus of contention in the western media as an Islamic court enforcing Sharia law ordered two teens to be put to death on charges related to homosexual behavior, an action also criticized in some Iranian media as against regulations prohibiting the execution of minors [2].
See also
- Ayatollah al-Shirazi, a Grand Ayatollah from Mashad.
- Khorasan
- Greater Khorasan
- Razavi Khorasan