Imam Riḍā's (A.S.) Holy Shrine is one of the most important religious places for Muslims, especially the Shi’ites, which benefactors have always pay attention to it. So that endowment has played a significant role in meeting the needs of the Holy Shrine and affiliated places in various historical periods, especially from Safavid period. Carpets, along with other functional accessories, such as lighting fixtures, are significant parts of Shrine's endowments. Studies show that many researches have been carried out in various aspects in the field of recognition and introduction of the endowments of the Imam Riḍā’s (A.S.) holy shrine, but not dedicated to the carpet endowment. Accordingly, in this study, the historical background of carpet endowment for the Holy Shrine of Imam Riḍā (A.S.), as well as different types of carpets endowment and all kinds of endowed carpets has been studied to determine the status of endowment in providing the Shrine carpets from Safavid to the late Qajar. This article is a historical research based on library, documentary and field studies.

For a long time, lighting at Razavi Shrine has been one of administrators concern. The main goal of this study is to investigate lighting evolution in the most crowded place of the Shrine, the holy burial chamber, which is mainly done using first-hand archival sources. In this article, using a descriptive-analytical method, we have tried to obtain a precise understanding of the lighting status of the Holy Shrine from the Safavid period to the contemporary era. The most important findings of this study indicate that in eight endowment documents, all or part of the income is allocated to the provision of lighting.
Various types of candlesticks (Shurfih, sham‘dān, Lālih, Mardangī, Qandīl, Kachkūlī, Chilchirāgh and Lūstir) were the main lighting equipment of Razavi Shrine in that period. From the Safavid period to the Qajar era, candles and waxes are the only fuel for lighting, but from the Pahlavi I era, electric lights and electric power replaces these tools and old fuels. Also, the main sources of lighting at the Holy Shrine were supplied by devotions and vows from different classes of society.

The questions brought up about death and afterlife are popular among the public. In this writing (as a personal account), with an obvious reasoning, the writer arrives at the conclusion that the true answer is to be obtained through the school of Revelation; because death is an incident that is never repeated nor testable. Purpose of life, purposefulness of creation, the coming to life of the dead, and man’s synthetic identity of body and soul are the subjects dealt with in this article. Finally, it is concluded that according to the Qur’ān and the traditions of the Infallible Imams (A.S.), death is the beginning of a new and eternal life.

The city of Mashhad is among the first cities in which passageways by the name of khiyābān (i.e. avenue) (Bālākhiyābān and Pāyīnkhiyābān) have been established. The urban managers of Mshhad and Astan Quds Razavi constructed a square around the premises of the Holy Shrine in 1308 sh/1929 in order to facilitate the traffic around there and to connect the main avenues of Bālākhiyābān and Pāyīnkhiyābān (lit. the upper and lower avenues); and for connecting the four sides of Mashhad, they established two other avenues called Tehrān and Ṭabarsī and added them to the square.After building the first square, the greatest difficulty that was the lack of connection between the Bālākhiyābān and Pāyīnkhiyābān was resolved; however, the increasing growth of population and the number of pilgrims in Mashhad prompted the expansion and widening of the first square in 1354 sh/1975. Eventually, the works carried out after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, including the establishment of the underpass, facilitated the traffic for the drivers and the traverse for the pedestrians and, on the other hand, expanded the area of the premises of the Holy Shrine and provided relative welfare for the pilgrims.

The Green Grave, which enshrines the body of Niẓām al-Dīn ‘Alīshāh, a descendant of Ḥamzat b. Mūsā al-Kāẓim, was until several years ago located on the side of Ḥāj Āqājān bazaar and revered and visited by the pilgrims and the public people, is now located on the north end of Bāq Riḍwān cemetery due to the demolitions and reconstructions taken place in recent years. The figure buried there is not fully identified; however, the Biography and Genealogy Department of the Islamic Research Foundation has undertaken an extensive study of the historical documents and re-examination of the epitaphs to further clarify his identity.

This article is excerpted from the fieldwork library research outcomes in the field of stone objects of AQR Museum. With respect to the form and content of the stone inscriptions, the article proceeds to analyze the information concerning the material of the stone, type of calligraphy and the style used in ornamenting the stones, identification of the artists who have created these inscriptions, the sponsors of the buildings of the Holy Shrine, and the thematic examination of the stones.

Many of the historical objects preserved and displayed in Astan Quds Razavi Museum are somehow influential in clarifying some aspects of AQR’s history. One of these collections of objects is the candleholders of the Safavid period related to the lighting of the Holy Shrine and the affiliated places. This collection has specific features in terms of form, inscriptions, and decorative reliefs. Written according to the field and library studies, this article examines a candleholder base belonging to the Safavid period dated 946/1539 in respect to its form, reliefs, and inscription and introduces it and its place of use with reference to the inscriptions carved on it.

The author, based on the verse 78 of Sūrat al-Ṣāffāt that God mentions the good name of the prophets, states the sense of benefaction in human nature and he knows it as the good works motive such as endowment of property and the establishment of charity institutions that its effects remain after death. Desire to preserve the good name and enjoy the reward of good deed, are conscientious reasons and inner reception on the survival of the soul after the death of the body because if human assumed himself nothing after death, he paid no attention to good or evil reputation while everybody wants to stay well-honed and praised after death and enjoy the rewards of their good deeds.

Some documents contain unique information that have not been added to the leaves of history of their own time. Study of these documents provides the students with the possibility of a better analysis of the events. Astan Quds Razavi has in its disposal many valuable paper documents about the Holy Shrine establishments from the Safavid period up to the present era. Meanwhile, the existence of some historical inscriptions on some antique works of the Holy Shrine preserved in the museum and treasury are considerable as an evidence to supplement the historical and archeological studies. Studying the inscriptions recorded on these works would help researchers to undertake a historical comparison of the events, as well.
Documentation of a tool-worked copper dūstkāmī (a kind of water drinking container) in the Astan Quds Museum, which has significant inscriptions and very beautiful images, provides a day-by-day account of the history of Astan Quds on this work. This article, which is carried out through performing field and library studies and by implication of the inscriptions and searching and completing the information inscribed on them in written and document sources, shows the importance of documentation and its application in historical studies. It also reinforces the hypothesis of the impressive role that the historical works play on explaining important incidents in a certain period. The findings of this research show how the information recorded on this work helps the researchers notice its function on one hand and the importance of the work and the incident recorded on it on the other.

Given their apparent features, carpets have always been subjects to aesthetic discussion and the experts have mentioned numerous indices and variables as aesthetic principles in carpets.
With respect to the fact that a great part of the carpets preserved in Āstān Quds Raḍawī Carpet Museum are endowed or donated, they have been directly influenced by the beliefs of their weavers and producers from the aesthetic point of view. Accordingly, in the present article, the aesthetic principles of the prayer-niche rugs of Āstān Quds Raḍawī Carpet Museum are studied and, among their objectives, one can point out the recognition of aesthetic principles based on the beliefs and culture of the weavers and producers of different carpet-weaving regions as well as the impact of using this collection of rugs in the Holy Shrine. To this end, first the principles and branches of aesthetics in Islamic art, such as symbolism, principle of Unity, centrism, symmetry, and balance are identified. Then, according to the above-mentioned indices, the aesthetics of the collection under study are studied in line with achieving the objectives in question. This article is a subsection of descriptive-analytical articles and the gathering of information has taken place with the library and fieldwork method.