Imām Rezā Shrine

The Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, in Khorasan in northeastern Iran, holds the tomb of Ali al-Rida, the eighth Shia Imam. In 818 the caliph al-Ma'mun had Reza poisoned near Tus, and the grave grew into Mashhad, whose name means the place of martyrdom.

In 993 the Ghaznavid ruler Sebuktigin sacked the town and halted pilgrimage, until Mahmud of Ghazni restored the shrine after 1009. After the Mongol devastation of Khorasan in 1220 the Ilkhanid ruler Öljaitü renovated it. In 1418 the Timurid empress Goharshad built her mosque beside the sanctuary.

With the Safavid adoption of Twelver Shiism in 1501 the shrine became a royal pilgrimage centre. Shah Abbas I walked from Isfahan to Mashhad and gilded the dome between 1601 and 1607; the Qajar shahs enlarged the complex in the early nineteenth century.