Tus () was an ancient city in Khorasan near the modern city of

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. To the ancient Greeks, it was known as Susia (). It was also known as Tusa. The area now known as Tus was divided into four cities, Tabran, Radakan, Noan and Teroid, which in combination formed largest city in the region in the fifth century.

History

According to legend Tous son of Nowzar founded the city of Tous in the province of Khorassan next to today's city of

. It is said that the city of Tous was the capital of

Parthia Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemeni ...

and the residence of King Vishtaspa, who was the first convert to Zoroastianism. It was captured by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

in 330 BCE, and became a key waypoint on the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

. Tus was taken by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and remained under Umayyad control until 747, when a subordinate of Abu Muslim Khorasani defeated the Umayyad governor during the Abbasid Revolution. In 809, the

Abbasid Caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came ...

Harun al-Rashid Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd (), or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Hārūn al-Rāshīd (), was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 unti ...

fell ill and died in Tus, on his way to solve the unrest in Khorasan. His grave is located in the region. In the 9th and 10th century, the

Persian literature Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day ...

flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana under

Samanid Empire The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest extent encompassing northeastern Iran and Central Asia, from 819 ...

and other Iranian dynasties. The most famous person who has emerged from that area is the poet

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

, author of the Persian epic

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

, whose mausoleum, built in 1934 in time for the millennium of his birth, dominates the town. Other notable residents of Tus include the

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, jurist, philosopher and mystic

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

; early

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Jābir ibn Hayyān; the poet Asadi Tusi; the powerful Seljuk vizier

Nizam al-Mulk Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī Ṭūsī () (1018 – 1092), better known by his honorific title of Niẓām al-Mulk (), was a Persian Sunni scholar, jurist, political philosopher and vizier of the Seljuk Empire. Rising from a low position w ...

; the medieval polymath

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī (1201 – 1274), also known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (; ) or simply as (al-)Tusi, was a Persians, Persian polymath, architect, Early Islamic philosophy, philosopher, Islamic medicine, phy ...

; the prominent Usooli ''mujtahid'' (Twelver-Shi'a law interpreter) Shaykh Tusi; and the noted

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

mystic and historian Abu Nasr as-Sarraj. The Samanid poet Daqiqi was also a native of Tus. In 1220, Tus was sacked by the Mongol general,

Subutai Subutai (c. 1175–1248) was a Mongol general and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He ultimately directed more than 20 campaigns, during which he conquered more territory than any other commander in history a ...

, and a year later

Tolui Tolui (born ; died 1232) was the youngest son of Genghis Khan and Börte. A prominent general during the early Mongol conquests, Tolui was a leading candidate to succeed his father after his death in 1227 and ultimately served as regent of th ...

would kill most of its populace, and destroying the tomb of Caliph

in the process.''Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources'', Vol. 2, ed. E. Bretschneider, (Routledge, 2000), 65. Tus was rebuilt in 1239 under the governorship of Kuerguez. The city was attacked again in 1256 by the Mongols during Hulegu's campaign against the Nizari Ismailis.

Registration of Ferdowsi's Tomb in UNESCO

Ferdowsi Tomb has been nationally registered in the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization and at the suggestion of the Cultural Heritage Organization and Ferdowsi Foundation, efforts have been made to pursue the registration of Ferdowsi Tomb in the UNESCO

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

References

Sources

* * *

External links

*
Livius.org: Susia (Tus)
Populated places in Mashhad County Ancient Iranian cities Populated places along the Silk Road Nishapur Quarter {{Mashhad-geo-stub

History

Registration of Ferdowsi's Tomb in UNESCO

See also

References

Sources

External links