Mashhad

Mashhad (مشهد in Persian, is also spelled Meshed). It is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shi'ia world. It is located 850 kilometers East of Tehran, Iran (Persia), and the center of the province of Razavi Khorasan.

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The city was founded around 823 CE, and its name derives from mashhad-e-reza, "place of martyrdom". It is a reference to the death of Imam Reza, the Eighth Imam of Shi'ite Islam, who is believed by members of the Shi'ia sect to have been poisoned there upon orders of Caliph Al Ma'mun. Before his death the place was a small village by the name of Sanabad. A shrine was built there to commemorate the Imam, and gradually the town grew around it. Among the first major buildings was a mausoleum built by Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi. Today the holy shrine and its museum hold one of the most extensive cultural and artistic treasuries of Iran, in particular manuscript books and paintings. Several important theological schools are associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.

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Tehran: Tehran (also transcribed Teheran) (تهران in Persian), population 9,000,000 (metropolitan: 14,000,000), and a land area of 254 square miles, the capital of Iran (Persia) and the center of Tehran Province. Tehran is located at . http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_fi...