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How did urban renewal under Mohammad Reza Shah change the area around Mashhad’s shrine?
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Mashhad
Shrine of the imam ʿAlī al-Riḍā, Mashhad, Iran.
Under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah (1941–1979), the area surrounding the shrine of Ali al-Rida in Mashhad underwent a significant urban renewal project.1
Prior to this renovation in the mid-1970s, the shrine complex functioned as a dense, self-contained "town within a city," comprising a collection of mosques, courtyards, seminaries, caravanserai, bazaars, and areas for sanctuary-taking (bast). The urban renewal project fundamentally altered this landscape by clearing away the bazaar shops, inns, hotels, and workshops that were adjacent to the holy site. This process replaced the historic, tightly packed urban fabric with a vast, open plaza and a modern avenue leading toward the shrine, which was subsequently renovated and expanded.21