Sanabad was a village where the palace of Humayd ibn Qahtaba was located in the early 3rd century AH. When Harun al-Rashid died, he was buried in this palace. A few years later, during the caliphate of al-Ma'mun, in 202 AH, Ali al-Rida, who was on his way to Baghdad was poisoned in the house of the emir of Sanabad, and al-Ma'mun buried his body near Harun's grave. From then on, that spot was called "Mashhad al-Rida", or Mashhad (place of martyrdom)[1] for short.[2][3] The city developed around the grave of al-Rida as the holiest site in Iran for the Shia.[4] Gradually, many pilgrims were attracted to this place, and their number increased year by year.[5]

Aerial view of al-Rida shrine, 1976

References

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  1. The British Intervention in Transcaspia. University of California Press. p. 84.
  2. Bosworth, C. Edmund (2007). Historic Cities of the Islamic World. Brill. ISBN 9789004153882.
  3. Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar. "مشهد". Archived from the original on 6 August 2015.
  4. Momen, Moojan (1985). An Introduction to Shi'i Islam. Yale University Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780300034998.
  5. Ponafidine, Pierre (1911). Life in the Moslem East. Dodd, Mead. p. 365.