Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum

About

The Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum is the museum of the Imam Reza Shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. The museum is one of the largest and most important museum complexes in West Asia. It was founded in 1937, although the present building dates to 1977. Located within the shrine complex, it preserves the treasures of the shrine, objects related to Imam Reza, as well as centuries of donated artworks, manuscripts, and historical objects. The museum complex is spread across four main buildings. It displays the history of the shrine along with collections of coins, medals, weapons and armor, astronomical instruments, clocks, ceramics, visual arts, shells, stamps, and paper money. The Quran and Rare Objects Museum houses priceless handwritten Qurans, illuminated manuscripts, gifts presented to the shrine, and works by the renowned Iranian artist Mahmoud Farshchian. The Carpet Museum exhibits historic Persian carpets, many of which were donated to the shrine over several centuries. Following the inauguration of a museum in the Golestan Palace in Tehran after Nassereddin Shah Qajar's return from his second European tour, displaying a collection of exquisite objects in a building in the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad became a major concern for the custodians and the vice custodians of the shrine during the late Qajar period. This issue was even reflected in the newspapers of the era. But it was not until the years 1925-1935 when Muhammad Wali Assadi, the then vice custodian of the shrine and a key political figure in the early Pahlavi period, administered the whole affairs of Astan Quds Razavi and proposed the idea of establishing a museum. Later in 1936 and under Fathullah Pakravan's vice custodianship (1935 -1941) of the Imam Reza Shrine, a collection of objects was selected and the AQR Museum was incorporated. After 27 years and in accordance with a development plan for the Imam Reza Shrine, the first AQR Museum building was demolished and its collections were transferred to the reception hall in the south east of the Museum Courtyard in 1972. The collections were provisionally exhibited there until 1977 when a modern five-storey building for the AQR Library, Museum and Storage Rooms was constructed on the east side of the Museum Courtyard. Borbor Consulting Group was chosen to supervise the architecture of the project with the assistance of some museum experts from England. After the Iranian Revolution, the AQR Library was gradually transferred to its current location on the west side of Enghelab Courtyard in the holy shrine and the AQR Museum expanded under the custodianship of Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi (1979-2016). The Museum Department is currently administered by the Organisation of the Libraries, Museums and Archives of Astan Quds Razavi and comprises three subsidiary offices (the Curatorial Departments, the Research, and the Conservation and Restoration), a reference library, and the following four buildings which are annually visited by pilgrims and tourists. This office administers seven curatorial departments which exhibit and care for the objects in the AQR Museum. The AQR Museum has a dedicated Research Office. Since its founding in 2003, the Conservation and Restoration Office has been responsible for the preservation, investigation and restoration of the AQR Museum's collections.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.