The city of Mashad is situated 909 km. from Tehran in a plain between the two mountain ranges of Binalood and Hezar Masjed. Mashad enjoys a temperate, mountainous climate.
In the year 202 AH, after the martyrdom of Imam Reza (AS) in a place around Toos called Sanabad which came to be known as Mashad-e-Reza (Place of Martyrdom) the main nucleus of todays or the present Mashad came into existance.
Sultan Mahmood Qaznavi built a mausoleum on the shrine.
Due to the destruction of the city of Toos in the 7th century AH, people flocked to the city of Mashad. At first, the area of Toos was inhabited by non-Aryans and some parts of it was conquered by the Arabs during the reign of the Caliph Osman.
It was annexed to the Islamic territory in the time of Caliph Omar. The city of Toos was one of the first to be plundered and destroyed like the other cities of Khorassan by the Mongols