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Mashhad (Persian: مشهد, literally the
place of martyrdom) is the second largest city in Iran and one of
the holiest cities in the Shia world. It is located 850 kilometers
(500 miles) east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan
Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its
population was 2,427,316 at the 2006 population census.
Now Mashhad is notably known as the resting place of the Imam Reza
(Ali ibn Musa al-Rida). A shrine was later built there to
commemorate the Imam, which in turn gave rise to increasing
demographic development.
Mashad is also known as the city of Ferdowsi the great Persian poet
of Shahnameh which is considered to be the Persian national epic.
The city is located at 36.20ş latitude
and 59.35ş east longitude, in the valley of the Kashaf River near
Turkmenistan, between the two mountain ranges of Binalood and
Hezar-masjed. The city benefits from the proximity of the mountains,
having very cold winters, pleasant springs, mild summers, and
beautiful autumns. It is only about 250 km (156 miles) from
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
The city is the administrative centre of Mashhad County (or the
shahrestan of Mashhad) as well as the somewhat smaller district (bakhsh)
of Mashhad. The city itself, excluding parts of the surrounding
bakhsh and shahrestan, is divided into 13 smaller administrative
units, with a total population of almost 2,5 million.[1]
Mashhad consists mainly of people of Iranian descent. There are also
over 20 million pilgrims who visit the city every year.
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Molla Heydar mosque, 19th century Iranian architecture.
In the beginning of the 9th century (3th century AH) Mashhad was a
small village called Sanabad situated 24km away from Tus. There was
a summer palace of "Hamid ibn Qahtabi", the governor of Khorasan. In
808 when Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph, was passing through there
to settle down the insurrection of "Rafi ibn Leith" in Transoxania,
he became ill and died. He was buried under the palace of Hamid ibn
Qahtabi. Several years later in 818 Imam Reza was martyred by Al-Ma'mun
and was buried beside the grave of Harun. [3]
After this event this place was called as Mashhad al-Rida (the place
of martyrdom of Ali al-Rida). Shias started visiting there for
pilgrimage of his grave. By the end of the 9th century a dome was
built on the grave and many buildings and Bazaars sprang up around
it. During more than a millennium it has been devastated and
reconstructed several times. [4]
It was not considered a great city until Mongol raids in 1220 which
caused the destruction of many large cities in the Greater Khorasan
territories, leaving Mashhad relatively intact. Thus the survivors
of the massacres migrated to Mashhad.[5] When the famous world
traveller Ibn Battuta visited the town in 1333, he reported that it
was a large town with abundant fruit trees, streams and mills. A
great dome of elegant construction surmounts the noble mausoleum,
the walls being decorated with colored tiles.[2]
Later on, during the Shahrokh era, it became one of the main cities
of the Timurid dynasty. In 1418 his wife Goharshad funded the
construction of an outstanding mosque beside the shrine, which is
known as Goharshad Mosque.[5] The mosque remains relatively intact
to this date, its great size an indicator to the status the city
held in the 15th century.
Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, conquered Mashhad
after the death of Husayn Bayqarah and the decline of the Timurid
dynasty. Mashhad was later captured by the Uzbeks during the reign
of Shah Abbas I, only to be retaken by the Shah Abbas in the year of
1597 after a long and severe struggle, defeating the Uzbeks in a
great battle near Herat as well as managing to drive them beyond the
Oxus River.
Shah Abbas I wanted to encourage Iranians to go to Mashhad for
pilgrimage. he himself is known to have walked from Isfahan to
Mashhad. During the Safavid era Mashhad gained even more religious
recognition, becoming the most important city of the Greater
Khorasan as several Madrasah and other structures were built beside
the shrine of the Imam Reza.
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 also a great benefactor of the
shrine of the Imam Reza, making the city his capital. It remained
the capital of the Afsharid dynasty until Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar
conquered the then larger region of Khorasan in 1796.
In 1912, the sanctuary of the Imam Reza was bombed by the Russian
forces, causing widespread and persisting resentment in the Shiite
Muslim world.
1935 Imam Reza shrine rebellion
In 1935 a backlash against the modernizing, anti-religious policies
of Reza Shah erupted in the Mashed shrine. Responding to a cleric
who denounced the Shah's heretical innovations, corruption and heavy
consumer taxes, many bazaaris and villagers took refuge in the
shrine, chanted slogans such as `The Shah is a new Yezid.` For four
full days local police and army refused to violate the shrine and
the standoff was ended when troops from Azerbaijan arrived and broke
into the shrine[6], killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and
marking a final rupture between Shi'ite clergy and the Shah.[7]
1994 Imam Reza shrine bombing
On June 20, 1994, an explosion from a bomb occurred in a prayer hall
of the shrine of the Imam Reza[8] The bomb that killed at least 25
people on June 20 in Mashhad exploded at Ashura.[9] Mehdi Nahvi, a
member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MKO), an Iraqi-based
opposition group, claimed responsibility. The MKO stated that the
bombing was carried out to commemorate the anniversary of the
group's founding on June 20, 1981.[citation needed] Although
government blamed the Mujahedin-e-Khalq in a TV show to avoid
sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni[citation needed], the
Pakistani daily "News" of March 27, 1995 reported, “Pakistani
investigators have identified a 24-year-old religious fanatic Abdul
Shakoor residing in Lyari in Karachi, as an important Pakistani
associate of Ramzi Yousef. Abdul Shakoor had intimate contacts with
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and was responsible for the June 20, 1994,
massive bomb explosion at the shrine Imam Ali Reza in Mashhad.”[10]
Religious minorities
Though primarily a Muslim city, Mashhad has harbored a number of
religious minorities over the centuries. Among these were Jews, who
in 1839 were forcibly converted to Islam. However, in truth they
lived a double life: outwardly they conformed to Islamic ways, and
were known as "Jadid al-Islam" or "New Muslims," but secretly they
preserved a Jewish identity and Jewish traditions.[11]
There was a Jewish district in Jennat Street. Jennat Street where
the most prestiges shopping centers of Mashhad located at the time
and was one the most expensive places of Mashhad.
Current religious situation
See also: Imam Reza shrine
Shrine of Imam Ali Reza in Mashad, Iran
Today the holy shrine and its museum hold one of the most extensive
cultural and artistic treasuries of Iran, in particular manuscript
books and paintings. Several important theological schools are
associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.
The second largest holy city in the world, Mashhad attracts more
than 20 million tourists and pilgrims every year, many of whom come
to pay homage to the Imam Reza shrine (the eighth Shi'ite Imam). It
has been a magnet for travellers since medieval times.[2] 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 20 million Muslims a
year make the pilgrimage to
Dictionary:
http://www.ectaco.co.uk/English-Persian(Farsi)-Dictionary/
English - Persian dictionary (8180 words)
http://translate.eu/en/dictionaries/English_-_Persian_dictionary
(modern) Christianity in Iran
http://www.farsinet.com/icc/europe.html
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Is Jesus The Promised Messiah? -
Aya Isa Masihe Mooud Ast? -
آيا
عيسى، مسيح موعود است؟
-
Did Jesus Become Man Yet Without Sin? -
Aya Isa Ensan Shod Vali Bedune Ghonah? -
آيا عيسى
انسان شد ولى بدون گناه؟
Knowing God -
Shenakhte Khoda #4 -
شناخت خدا ۴
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God's Wrath -
Qazabe Khoda -
غضب خدا
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Supremacy of God -
Azemate Khoda -
عظمت خدا
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God's Power -
Qodrate Khoda -
قدرت خدا
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The Only True God -
Tanha Khodaye Vaqeie -
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