Journal of Razavi Culture

Rereading Classical Geographers’ and Travel Writers’ Reports of the Martyrdom and Burial of Imam Reza (as): From the Beginning to the End of the Qajar Era

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Hamid reza Attariyani 1
Mahbouba Esmaili 2
Hassan Shadpour 3

1 Department of History, Shahrood University, Shahrood, Iran: hattariani3100@gmail.com

2 Assitant Professor, Department of History, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahroo Iran. (Corresponding Author): m.esmaeili@iaushahrood.ac.ir

3 Assitant Professor, Department of History, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood, Iran: h.shadpoor@iaushahrood.ac.ir

https://doi.org/10.22034/farzv.2025.492095.2048
Abstract
Non-Iranian and Iranian travel writers have given different reports of the martyrdom event and then the burial of the body of the 8th Imam of Shiites in the land of Khorasan, in the year 203 AH, until the Qajar era. In this research, the reports of classical geographers and domestic and foreign travel writers about the martyrdom and burial of Imam Reza (peace be upon him) from the 3rd century to the end of the 13th century are discussed. The research community is 40 travelogues. Of these, thirty travelogues are non-Iranian and ten Iranian travelogues have also been examined. The research method in this research is quantitative and qualitative with a descriptive approach based on events taken from travelogues and geography books. This research aims to find the answer to how the event of martyrdom and the place of burial of Hazrat Reza, peace be upon her, are described in the travelogues of Europeans and Iranians? The findings of this research indicate that religious reports about the martyrdom and burial of Imam Reza (peace be upon her) were mentioned in a small or incomplete form by geographers and travel writers until the end of the 11th century. In the reports of the early centuries after the martyrdom, they did not mention the name of the murderer or the perpetrator of the martyrdom in their travelogues for any possible reason. After that, in the 12th and 13th centuries of the lunar calendar, with the integration of religious and Shiite institutions after the Safavids, in the Qajar era, due to the frequent presence of travel writers to the threshold of Al-Quds and their attention to reflection and criticism of the event and burial, reporting on the event of martyrdom. It has reached its peak in travelogues.

Keywords

Shrine of Imam Reza (a.s.), Tomb of Imam Reza (a.s.), travelogues, Astan Quds Razavi, geographers, Mashhad

Subjects

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