Day 105: Walking Amongst the Pilgrims

Sorry this’ll have to be a quick entry but I’m just about to duck into a taxi and make my way back to the airport.  I’m in Mashhad, in the far north-eastern corner of Iran, near the Afghan and Turkmen borders, and will be catching the once-a-week flight to Biskek, Kyrgyzstan, on a dodgy Tupolev aircraft this afternoon.

I left Shiraz yesterday evening and flew to Tehran on the last flight of the night.  I got into the airport at around 1am, rolled out my thermarest mattress, and tried to get a few hours sleep.  I then had a 6am flight here, and I’ve been in Mashhad for the last few hours.  I’m pretty knackered but oh well, what can you do!

The city of Mashhad really doesn’t have anything going for it apart from the most important Shiite pilgrimage site in Iran – the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, and the eighth Imam (I hope I got that right – anyone testing?).  It’s a long story but he was apparently poisoned by the Sunnis all the way back when, and has been revered as a martyr ever since.  Some 20 million pilgrims come from over the world to visit his tomb, and the massive complex consumes 75 hectares in the centre of the city!  It’s HUGE.

After a bombing in 1994 that killed 24 people, no bags or cameras are allowed inside, so I have precious little to show for my visit.  Unfortunately, as a non-Muslim, I also wasn’t permitted to visit the inner sanctum (where the tomb is), but the outskirts of the buildings, mosques and squares were impressive enough.  The international visitors centre gave me a guide and were extremely helpful – I was even allowed to take a few books from their library, and was told that if I gave them my address they’d keep sending me books and pamphlets in the mail (subtle conversion techniques…).  For books, I went for "Imam Khomenei on Exportation of Revolution" (should be a good read…) and the curiously titled "Spurious Arguments About the Shia".  Another titled "Personal Jihad" (about self-embetterment, not killing Christians and Zionists) by Khomenei is now on my Christmas wish-list.

It was quite incredible – and an honour – to witness the outpouring of emotion and strength of people’s faith.  Many people were weeping and various religious chants would erupt spontaneously from the crowd.  It really is a different world…