EXTRAS



What is a Mash Tee? Mash tee is the title one receives when he/she visits Mashhad or The Imam Reza's shrine. Mash tee is also used as a sign of respect and acknowledgement of one's religious devotion. Mash tee is an alternative title to Haji, which is bestowed on a Moslem after visiting and attending to Moslem pilgrimage in Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Mash tee is also a title (rather a generic one) to anybody from Mashhad. Mash tee is actually a slang for Mashhadi (one from Mashhad).








[1*] History of Imam Reza's SHRINE...

Hamza ibne Qahtabah, the Abbasid army commander who had led the war against the Ommayids was appointed by Mansur and Al-Mahdi, the Abbasid caliphs as the Governor of Khorasan. He made a big garden between Noughan and Sanadan and erected a palace which stood up to the beginning of the 4th century AH. Haroon, who had come to Tus to suppress the Khorasan rebellion, became ill and resided in the garden during his ailment. But he died in 193 H. And was buried inside the palace. Upon his tomb a shrine was built.
In 203 AH, Imam Al-Ridha, peace be upon him, was poisoned by Mamoun, the son of Haroon and Imam was buried alongside with Haroon. Since the martyrdom of Imam, his holy shrine became a place of pilgrimage for the world's Shias and the city spread so far as Noughan and Sanabad were annexed to it to become Mashhad Al-Ridha, shortened over time to Mashhad.
The holy shrine was ruined by Saboktakin, a Ghaznavi king. But his son, Sultan Mahmud ordered the shrine to be repaired and expanded in 428 AH. During the invasion of Changis and his son, Tooly, the holy shrine was ruined again. Sultan Mohamed Khoda-Banda, a Shiite king of Moghol dynasty, who reigned from 703 to 716 AH, had the holy shrine rebuilt. Since the time of Safavids, Afshars and Qajars to date many of the Astane-Qods buildings have been expanded.