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especially when my mother, after visiting the
shrine several times, told us that she had received a letter of acceptance
from Imam-Riza. The practice existed at the shrine by which letters were
sent from the top saying that devotees should be happy and their prayers
would be granted. My mother had such a message fall from on high into her
lap, and took it as a direct sign from Imam-Riza that all would be well with
the cause of her petition. But to my disappointment I never received my
bicycle!
Imam Ali Ibn Musa al-Riza was the eighth Imam (or religious leader) of the
Shi'ites, and was brought to Mashhad by Ma'mun (who reigned from 813 to
833), the son of Harun Al-rashid, Caliph of Baghdad. Ma'mun had been
Governor in Khorasan, but was attacked by his younger brother from Baghdad
and defeated. Now Ma'mun sought to make Imam-Riza Caliph of Baghdad, but the
Iraquis rejected him and Ma'mun was forced to journey to Baghdad to take
charge. Imam-Riza died suddenly, and it was believed (not necessarily
correctly) that Ma'mun had got rid of an embarrassing favourite by having
him poisoned. No doubt Ma'mun himself, either sincerely or hypocritically,
began the cult of the lost heir.
People went to Mashhad for a mixture of holiday, business or pilgrimage, or
anyone of the three; some even went there to find concubines and wives. But
all who went there went under the name of pilgrims, to do honour to the
place. For a child, who took no part in long hours of prayer, or sitting and
reading prayers, which was boring, the whole thing was very much a cross
between a museum and an amusement park, with the fantastic domes, the
chandeliers, the mirrors, the great dinners served in public - a sort of
entertainment for children. Huge pools with hundreds of pigeons playing
around in lovely sunshine surrounded the tall trees and flower gardens.
The entrance to Imam-Riza's tomb in Mashhad.
Hot puddings and sweets were served to us at the huge gate before the
gardens of the shrine, or sweets were distributed by the pilgrims in
recompense for the granting of their wishes (or in hope that they would be
granted). So each day, whenever my mother and grandmother asked me to visit
the shrine, all that persuaded me to go were the pigeons and sweets; and I
had not completely given up on the bicycle, though I was finding it
increasingly difficult to work out how Imam-Riza was to deliver it.
Going to the tomb of Imam-Riza itself meant being pressed up against the
metal silver of the bars around it, through which so many people had pushed
paper money. I wondered how a person so long dead could be of any help to
us. I found it even more alarming, if not sickening, when people would
arrive with a coffin which would be taken around the tomb in a circle, while
the parents and mourners followed, asking that Imam-Riza cleanse the dead
man of his sins. On the other hand, it was impossible not to be impressed by
the pure gold or silver of the gates; the tomb itself was about the size of
an ordinary Western suburban reception room, but the entire building, almost
all of it constructed of white marble, was the size of my university in
Edinburgh. Some of the rooms were covered in costly carpets; most walls were
bare marble, which would be pleasantly cool after the hot summer sun. I
could hardly have failed to be impressed by the golden domes and colourful
mosaic exteriors of the building housing the tomb.
All sorts of reasons had contributed over the centuries to the cult of
ImamRiza, beginning with Ma'mun who either deeply mourned his ill-fated
successor-designate or wished to conceal his own guilt in his demise. There
were the Shi'ites who venerated him as a Shi'ite holy man, martyred by his
enemies (Ma'mun personally believed that the Quran was written by men, not a
work "uncreate", as most Shi'ites believe, and hence they would be glad to
believe the worst of Ma'mun.) There were the Persians of Khorasan, who had
been involved by then in a series of military conflicts with Baghdad, who
saw Imam-Riza as a holy man whose rejection by Baghdad was responsible for
his death, although as he was from the region of Iraq, he should have
received acceptance at its hands. There were the Mongols, who found the cult
useful for the consolidation of their hold on Khorasan when, with the
passing of the centuries, they acquired it. Even in the recent past, the
various Iranian rulers have found it advisable to show their respect for it.
Reza Shah had added much exotic architecture to the shrine, stressing his
own similarity in name: the very fact that he and his predecessors often
fell foul of the holy men made him and them all the more anxious to show
their credentials with so popular a figure, who, being dead, was less likely
to question their actions than the mullahs and ayatollahs. And the obvious
presence of Imam-Riza as a symbol of Iranian unity over the thousand miles
from Tabriz to Mashhad, as opposed to the perfidy of Baghdad in rejecting
its own truly descended Imam and thereby causing his death, gave even
stronger motives for the furtherance of the cult. Ruler after ruler had
increased the extent and magnificence of the adjoining buildings to the tomb
and its attendant shrines and, as could be seen by all those pieces of paper
money pushed through the silver bars of his tomb, Imam-Riza had become an
exceedingly rich corpse over the centuries. He could well have afforded to
give me a bicycle.
The whole story of Imam-Riza and his posthumous cult is a perfect example of
the intricacies of politics and religion. Ma'mun, aware that Baghdad
bitterly resented being ruled from Khorasan, decided on ImamReza as someone
whose religious situation would surely make him acceptable to the devout
Shi'ite population of Baghdad. But Baghdad's regional loyalties proved
stronger than the appeal of even so distinguished a representative of the
Shi'ite religious culture. Ironically, once Ma'mun arrived in Baghdad after
Imam-Riza's death the rebellion ended. It is possible that Imam-Riza would
have been able to rule in accordance with the wishes of Ma'mun after his
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