The shrine of Imam Reza at Mashhad is the tomb of the only one of the Twelve Imams buried in Iran, and it has grown into one of the largest religious complexes anywhere.
Ali al-Rida and the place of martyrdom
Ali al-Rida, the eighth Imam, died in 818 while in the entourage of the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun, who had named him heir in a political manoeuvre. Shia tradition holds that he was poisoned by the caliph rather than dying naturally, and the city that grew around his grave took the name Mashhad, "the place of martyrdom", reflecting that conviction. As the single Imam interred in Iran, his tomb became the country's foremost pilgrimage destination.
The complex
Around the tomb chamber, beneath its golden dome, has accreted an enormous complex covering well over a square kilometre: courtyards, prayer halls, the great congregational mosque endowed by a medieval queen, museums, libraries and a seminary. The whole is administered by a major religious endowment, historically one of the wealthiest in Iran, whose holdings extend far beyond the shrine. The scale of the site reflects centuries of royal and pious patronage.
Pilgrimage on a vast scale
Mashhad receives pilgrims in enormous numbers, many millions each year, who come to circumambulate and touch the enclosure around the tomb; one who has completed the pilgrimage may take the honorific Mashhadi. It remains an intensely active shrine, busiest around the religious calendar, and a centre of Shia devotion and learning as well as the spiritual heart of north-eastern Iran.