Mashhad

Mashhad (Persian: مشهد‎‎ ;  listen ) is the second most populous city in Iran and capital of Razavi Khorasan Province. It is located in the northeast of the country, close to the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Its population was 2,749,374 at the 2011 census and its built-up (or metro) area was home to 2,782,976 inhabitants including Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh cities. It was a major oasis along the ancient Silk Road connecting with Merv in the East.

The city is most famous and revered for housing the tomb of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine and pay their tributes to Imam Reza.

Mashhad is also known as the city of Ferdowsi, the Iranian poet of Shahnameh, which is considered to be the national epic of Iran. The city is the hometown of some of the most significant Iranian literary figures and artists such as Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, the famous contemporary poet, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the traditional Iranian singer and composer. Ferdowsi and Akhavan Sales are both buried in Tus, an ancient city that is considered to be the main origin of the current city of Mashhad.

Mashhad, Israel

Mashhad (Hebrew: מַשְׁהַד, Arabic: مشهد‎, Mash-hed transliteration, grave of a holy man) is an Arab town located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northeast of Nazareth in Israel's North District. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 6,700 mostly Muslim inhabitants.

History

Traces of ancient ruins have been found.

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers under the name of Mashad Yunis, as being in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Tabariyya under the Liwa of Safad. It had a population of 31 households and 6 bachelors, all Muslim, who paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, fruit trees, vegetable and fruit garden, orchard, as well as on goats and/or beehives.

A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as El Mecheb.

In 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village, which he estimated had at most 300 inhabitants. In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Meshed as "A small village, built of stone, surrounding the traditional tomb of Jonah -a low building surmounted by two white- washed domes. It contains about 300 Moslems, and is situated on the top of a hill, without gardens. The water supply is from cisterns."

Mashhad (disambiguation)

Mashhad is a city in Iran.

Mashhad (Persian: مشهد‎‎) may also refer to:

Places

Iran

Elsewhere

Other uses