At
the beginning of the 9th century (3rd century AH) Mashhad was a small village
called Sanabad situated 24 km away from Tus. There was a summer
palace of "Hamid ibnQahtabi", the governor of Khorasan. In 808
when Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph, was passing through there
to settle down the insurrection of "Rafi ibnLeith" inTransoxania, he
became ill and died. He was buried under the palace of Hamid ibnQahtabi.
Several years later in 818 Imam Ali
