CHAPTER 4
MASHHAD AND EASTERN IRAN
MASHHAD IS 500 MILES NORTHEAST OF TEHRAN. IT IS BOTH THE CAPITAL AND LARGEST CITY (MORE THAN 2 MILLION PEOPLE) OF IRAN’S EASTERN PROVINCE, AND IT IS ALSO THE COUNTRY’S HOLIEST CITY. MASHHAD (PLACE OF MARTYRDOM) IS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF THE IM AM REZA, A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF THE PROPHET MUHAMM AD AND EIGHTH IN THE LINE OF TWELVE IMAMS, OR SPIRITUAL LEADERS. THE TWELFTH IMAM, THE MAHDI, IS SAID TO HAVE DISAPPEARED IN THE NINTH CENTURY AND ACCORDING TO BELIEVERS IS DUE TO RETURN TO GUIDE THE WORLD TO A RIGHTEOUS PEACE.
An elderly man and woman at the entrance to the Sheikh Ahmad Jami mausoleum complex in Torbat-e Jam, a border town of approximately 70,000 people. Jami, a twelfth-century Sunni mystic poet also known as Zhendeh Pil (ragged elephant), is buried in the courtyard.
Although Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia and Najaf and Karbala in Iraq are seen by Shiites as the holiest cities, Mashhad has gained in importance for Iranian pilgrims since it is much more accessible, especially in light of the turmoil taking place across the country’s western borders. Those who complete the pilgrimage to Mecca receive the title of haji; those who make the pilgrimage to Mashhad are known as mashtee. It is said that the rich go to Mecca but the poor journey to Mashhad. With thousands of pilgrims in the city at any given time, Mashhad has a much more religious feel to it than Tehran, with many more women cloaked in black chadors (women are only admitted to the shrine of the imam if wearing the chador).
While approximately 15 percent of Muslims worldwide are Shia, with 85 percent being Sunni, Iran is the only officially Shia country. Its populace is roughly 89 percent Shia, 10 percent Sunni, and the rest made up of Christians, Jews, and those of other faiths. The Shia-Sunni split in the Muslim faith stems from a disagreement over who is held to be the true successor of the prophet Muhammad. Further, Iranians are Persian, not Arab, though there is an Arab population in Iran. Iran has never been an Arab country and was known as Persia until 1935. Additionally, the predominant language is Farsi, not Arabic. These distinctions are a source of pride for Iranians and sometimes a source of tension and separation within the Middle East.
In 1994, a terrorist bombing at the holy shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad killed twenty-five people, resulting in a policy, continued today, of strict security searches for visitors to the shrine. While the shrine and the religious pilgrims that it draws have been important for Mashhad’s development, the city also attracted many refugees fleeing the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, due to its eastern location, far from the Iran-Iraq border. It is now Iran’s second largest city, after Tehran.
What was surprising to me in this ostensibly conservative city was its well-stocked, modern Westernstyle mall, with stores selling everything from knockoff Ralph Lauren and Versace to blenders and washing machines. The mall also hosts a supermarket with a large foreign foods section and a Pizza Hut–style eatery called Fast Food Proma, which occupies most of the ground floor. Five floors above is a children’s activity center and a bowling alley. The latter displayed a sign stating that bowling is “not permitted for ladies”—an interesting collision of East and West.
Driving east from Mashhad is to leave these amenities of urban life quickly behind. Much of Khorasan Province is sparsely populated. Traveling southeast toward the Afghan border, Mashhad’s suburbs soon give way to sun-scorched agricultural land, intermittent villages with low adobe houses, and shepherds tending to flocks of sheep. This last scene transported me not only toward the Afghan border, but also back in time.
A major spiritual pilgrimage site, Mashhad also features modern Westernstyle shopping and entertainment amenities.
A view of the shrine complex at Mashhad. Millions of pilgrims come to Mashhad each year. In the 1980s, many people fleeing from the Iran-Iraq War took refuge here, the farthest major Iranian city from the war zone.
A family at a Golestan shrine.
Women with a young boy in the courtyard of Torbat-e Jam’s Sheikh Ahmad Jami mausoleum.
Many of the villages in Khorasan Province between Mashhad and the Afghan border are mud-walled houses surrounded by sun-scorched agricultural and grazing land dotted with flocks of sheep.
