Tus, Iran

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"Susia" redirects here. For the Israeli settlement, see Susya.
This article is about the ancient city. For the nearby modern-day villages, see Tus-e Olya and Tus-e Sofla.
The vast Haruniyeh Dome in Tus. Some say it is the tomb of al-Ghazali, but this is disputed.
Ferdowsi's tomb in Tus.

Tus (Persian: توس Tus or Tuws‎), also spelled as Tous, Toos or Tūs, is an ancient city in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran near Mashhad. To the ancient Greeks, it was known as Susia (Ancient Greek: Σούσια). It was captured by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE.

Tus was taken by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and remained under Umayyad control until 747, when a subordinate of Abu Muslim Khorasani defeated the Umayyad governor.[1] In 809, the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid fell ill and died in Tus, on his way to solve the unrest in Khorasan.[2]

Tus was almost entirely destroyed by the Mongol conquests between 1220-1259.

Perhaps the most famous resident of Tus was the poet Ferdowsi, author of the Persian epic Shahnameh. His mausoleum, built in 1934 in time for the millennium of his birth, dominates the town. Other notable residents of Tus include the early polymath Jābir ibn Hayyān; the poet Asadi Tusi; the powerful Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk; the theologian, jurist, philosopher and mystic al-Ghazali; the medieval polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi; and the prominent Twelver Shi'i Islamic scholar Abu Ja'far Tusi.

See also[edit]

  • Al-Tusi - a descriptor used for individuals associated with Tus


  1. ^ Tus, V. Minorsky, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. X, ed. P.J. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs, (Brill, 2000), 741.
  2. ^ The Court of the Caliphs by Hugh N Kennedy (ISBN 0 297 83000 7)

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 36°27′15″N 59°34′01″E﻿ / ﻿36.45417°N 59.56694°E﻿ / 36.45417; 59.56694