'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎149] (184/714)

MESHED 149
by bringing it up to date. The fixed residence of an official
representative of the Queen in Meshed is alone sufficient to mark
an epoch in its history.
I may dismiss with the briefest notice the rudiments of know
ledge about the holy city. Its name (Mashhad =' Place of Martyr-
History dom 0r Witliess ' l ) and fame ar e alike due to the fact that
in the ninth century a.d . the remains of the pre-eminently
holy Imam Reza, son of Imam Musa, and eighth of the twelve
Imams 01 Piophets, were here interred. Rumour relates, but
apparently without any very certain foundation, that, having incurred
the jealousy ot the Khali! Mamun (son of the renowned Harun-er-
Rashid), whose capital was Merv, the saint, then residing at
the city ot Tus, fifteen miles from the modern Meshed, was
removed at his orders by a dish of poisoned grapes ■ although
another tradition represents the holy father as having comfortably
died in his bed, or whatever was the ninth century equivalent
thereto, at Tus. Whichever be the truth, the body of the departed
prophet was interred in a tower in the neighbouring village of
Sanabad, where also (a curious corollary to the story of the murder)
lay the remains of the Khalif's father, the illustrious Harun. Sanabad
gradually became an object ot religious attraction and worship, and
Ibn Batutah, who travelled hither about 1330 A.D., found the
mosque of the Imam in existence, and highly revered. 2 In 1404
the courtly Spanish Ambassador, Don Ruy Gonzalez di Clavijo,
passing Meshed on his way to the Court of Timur at Samarkand,
left a similar record. 3 Shah Rukh, the youngest son of Timur,
subsequently embellished the mausoleum • while his wife, Gowher
Shad, erected the magnificent mosque which still exists alongside.
1 Mashhad is the locative noun of the root shahad, to witness.
He says that ' the Meshed of El Reza is a large and well-peopled city,
abounding in fruits. Over the Meshed is a large dome adorned with a covering
of silk and golden candlesticks. Under the dome, and opposite to the tomb of
M Reza, is the grave of the Calif Harun-el-Rashid. Over this they constantly
place candlesticks with lights. But when the followers of Ali enter as pilgrims
they kick the grave of El Rashid, but pour out their benedictions over that of El
Reza.' It is clear from the above that in the fourteenth century Meshed was as
much a place of Sunni as of Shiah pilgrimage.
3 ' Imam Reza lies buried in a great mosque in a large tomb, which is covered
with silver gilt. On account of this tomb the city is crowded with pilgrims, who
come here in great numbers every year. When the pilgrims arrive, they dismount
and kiss the ground, saying that they have reached a holy place' (Hakluty
Society edition).