Tous
Some cultural activists formed a campaign to take action for the global registration of Tous. Tous is where the tomb of the sage Ferdowsi, the famous Iranian poet, and creator of Shahnameh, lies forever in peace.
According to its organizers, this campaign has collected more than four thousand signatures from the people. The Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, and the Governor of Khorasan Razavi have been asked to take the necessary measures for the global registration of this city.
Tous is one of the historical cities of Khorasan, which is located near Mashhad in eastern Iran. The foundation of this city dates back to the pre-Islamic and Sassanid eras.
After Arabs invaded Khorasan as well, Tous became the capital of the province and one of the prosperous cities of Khorasan.
The dialect of the people of Tous is the same as the dialect of Mashhad. This dialect is related to the Herati dialect. Today, the Mashhadi dialect can be considered a remnant of the old birch dialect. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is the best source of the old Tousi dialect.
The dialect of the city of Tous can be considered a remnant of Dari Persian, which was the same as court Persian and court dialect.
Tous city is a rich city with the Kashfarud River, and agriculture is one of the common occupations of the people. The city of Tous has historical attractions as well. Therefore, we could say that the income of some the people in the city is tourism and services to tourists.
Harun al-Rashid, one of the Abbasid caliphs, died around Tous and was buried near the village of Sanabad. Some believe that Tous is Where Al-Ma’mun killed Ali Ibn Musa Al-Reza, the eighth Imam of the Shiites, and after his martyrdom.
Tous is one of the scientific centers of Khorasan. Among the most brilliant characters of Tous, we can mention Jabir ibn Hayyan, Muhammad ibn Aslam Tusi, Ferdowsi, Sheikh Tusi, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali.
The Mongol and Timurid dynasties severely destroyed Tous, and many of its inhabitants were massacred. Following these events, many residents of Tous went around the shrine of Imam Reza and settled there.
Some believe that the history of Tous dates back to the Achaemenid period when it was called Sosia. But only in Sassanid sources do we see the mention of the exact name Tous.
The city of Ferdowsi was one of the most prosperous regions of Iran during the Sassanid period. Some reports attribute the construction of this city to Jamshid Pishdadi and its renewal to Tous (Tus), the son of Nozar. There are documents in Avesta and Shahnameh on the heroism of Tus. In Shahnameh, Sam fought and killed a dragon near Kashfarud in the city of Tous.
According to Muslim historians and geographers like Ya’qubi (d. 284 AH), Istakhri, Ibn Huql, Ibn Khalqan, Muqaddasi, Heravi, and Mustafa Tous was one of the main cities of Khorasan, in the third to ninth centuries, AH.
Attacks of the Turks of Ghazni, the Mongols, and Timur resulted in massacring the people of Tous in the sixth to eighth centuries AH. Although Other governors like Shah Rukh, the son of Timur, rebuild the city and return the displaced people, Tour no longer saw his former glory.
Most of the people who managed to escape the destruction went to Sanabad and settled near the shrine of Imam Reza (AS). Thus, Mashhad al-Reza gradually expanded. The political, social, and economic position of Tous left and landed on Mashhad. Thus, from the ninth century onwards, Tous gradually lost its grand characteristics, and instead, Mashhad started to flourish in history.
The village of Baj and the remains of the city of Tabran are among the historical areas of Tous. However, the most famous attraction of it is, without doubt, the tomb of Ferdowsi, which has an irreplaceable status among lovers and enthusiasts of Persian, Iranian language, literature, and culture.
28 km west of Tous is the tomb of one of the greats creators of the most significant masterpiece of Iran. There is no limit to what Ferdowsi has done for the Persian language. Not only, he saved this rich language but also preserved the mythical and epic history of Iran.
He was born into a farmer family. The farmers were the third aristocratic class in the Sassanid era. This background came to his aid when the Ferdowsi, started to compose Shahnameh. Because in their family, so many stories exist, and he had full access to the best sources.
In the introduction of Baysanghari Shahnameh, Arsalan Jazeb was the first to construct a tomb for Ferdowsi. One hundred years after Ferdowsi’s death, this building was still standing and the Ghaznavid attack did not destroy it.
The area of Ferdowsi Mausoleum today is equal to 6 hectares, which includes the garden of the tomb, swimming pool, Ferdowsi memorial, office building, library, museum, and grave of the great contemporary poet Mehdi Akhavan Sales.
Mehdi Akhavan Sales, a famous Iranian poet, is buried there because he also wrote poems with a mighty epic voice. Akhavan Sales died in 1990. The grave of this poet lies in the western part of the complex, and a statue of him can be seen on top of his tombstone.
At dawn on October 10, 2016, the body of Master Mohammad Reza Shajarian, was buried next to the tomb of Mehdi Akhavan Sales, thus completing the treasures of Tous soil.
Master Shajarian is one of the greats of Iranian musicians. He was born on October 1, 1940, and on October 8, 2020, after years of suffering from cancer, joined the immortals in heaven. It is like Ferdowsi only calls the best to be with him.
Other sights of this city include the dome of Haruniyeh is an unadorned brick building and only Mogharnaskari has been used in its interior decorations.
Tous city museum, as one of the sights of this city, was built in 1374 with an area of 600 square meters in the west of Ferdowsi tomb and to perform a Naqqali.
Tous is the land that gave birth to epic. Epic created hope for those of us who have serious battles to fight. Tous, with having Ferdowsi as her leader, deserves the position of becoming a globalized city.