Iran - Andrew Burke [291]
Inner Sanctuaries (Muslims only)
The gold-domed centrepiece of the Haram complex is the revered 17th-century Holy Shrine building. Amid tearful prayer and meditation, the emotional climax to any Mashhad pilgrimage is touching and kissing the zarih (gold-latticed cage), which covers Imam Reza’s tomb in the shrine’s spectacular interior. The current zarih, the fifth, dates from 2001. Non-Muslims are excluded, but can see the previous zarih in the Haram’s main museum (see below).
You might catch a glimpse of the 50m blue dome and cavernous golden portal of the classic Timurid Azim-e Gohar Shad mosque (built from 1405 to 1418). However, non-Muslims aren’t allowed within to appreciate its splendid interior hosting the minbar (pulpit) where, according to Shiite tradition, the Mahdi (12th ‘hidden’ Imam) will sit on the Day of Judgement.
Haram Museums
Bequests and donations from the faithful fill the Haram’s fascinatingly eclectic museums. The Main Museum (Muze-ye Merkezi; admission IR5000; 8am-5.30pm Sat-Thu, 8am-noon Fri) kicks off with chunks of now-superseded shrine-décor interspersed with contemporary sporting medals presented by pious athletes. The basement stamp collection includes a 1983 commemorative featuring the ‘Takeover of the US Spy Den’. The 1st-floor Visual Arts Gallery offers you the opportunity to shower money (or hats) down onto the top of the Holy Shrine’s fourth zarih tomb encasement (replaced in 2001). Amid seashells and naturalist landscape-paintings of Surrey, notice Mahmood Farshchian’s modern classic Afternoon of Ashura. It’s a grief-stricken depiction of Imam Hossein’s horse returning empty to camp after the Imam’s martyrdom. That’s an image you’ll find repeated as both carpet and giant wood-inlay works in the separate Carpet Museum (admission IR5000; 8am-12.30pm Sat-Wed, 8am-11.30am Thu), where rugs range from beautiful classics through to garish coral gardens and a Tabriz-made carpet-portrait of WWI bogey-man Kaiser Wilhelm II. Tying the staggering 30 million knots for Seven Beloved Cities took 14 years. Upstairs, beside the shoe-deposit counter, is a two-room Calligraphy Gallery displaying priceless Korans, many dating back over a millennium.
OTHER SIGHTS
Just outside the complex’s official limits is the splendid 15th-century 72-Martyrs (Shah) Mosque. In its shadow, Mehdi Gholibek Hamam (admission IR3000; 8am-6pm Mon-Thu, 8am-1pm Fri) is one of Iran’s most interesting and spacious bathhouse museums. The main delight is the wonderful central dome re-painted for centuries in multiple levels – most recently in 1922 with naive murals that feature anthropomorphic figures gallivanting between giant bicycles, a Russian vintage car, an early biplane and a curiously unconcerned-looking victim facing a firing squad.
Lanes around the Haram’s various entrances are full of tourist trinket sellers but also a selection of real markets. The run-down, century-old Caravanserai Azizolaof contains down-market electronics stalls run by Afghans. Hurry to see this area before it’s all demolished as the Haram precinct plans to expand yet again.
SIGHTS BEYOND THE SHRINE COMPLEX
Boq’eh-ye Khajeh Rabi
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MASHTI
Although slightly less significant than pilgrimages to Mecca, Najaf or Karbala, a pilgrimage to Mashhad remains a deeply significant expression of faith for any Shiite Muslim. After wudu ‘ablutions’, the supplicant humbly enters the Holy Shrine asking ‘permission’ from Imam Reza through specific prayers and recitations. Following tearful meditations and Quranic readings, the pilgrimage culminates with the recitation of the Ziyarat Nameh prayer in front of the zarih (tomb) of Imam Reza.
In the same way that hajj pilgrims are respectfully known as haji, those who have fulfilled the pilgrimage to Mashhad are entitled to attach the prefix Mashti to their names.
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