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This was not my first entry into Iran. I had made two earlier visits there, the first in 1924 by way of Basra to Muhammara, Nasiriyya and Ahwaz, which is now called (Khuzestan). The second visit was in 1933, following my visit to India with the late Muhammad Ali Alluba Pasha as delegates of the Islamic Congress. After we had spent five months in India, the late Alluba (Pasha) returned to Egypt by sea, while I returned by car from India to Afghanistan, then to Lujistan, Iran, Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine, on a journey lasting more than a month during which I covered thousands of kilometers. I entered Iran by way of Zahedan, then Khorasan and the city of “Mashhad al-Rida,” known in history as “Tus,” where Caliph Harun al-Rashid died and was buried in a tomb built by his son al-Mamun. During the latter’s reign, Imam Musa al-Rida, of the Prophet’s family, died, and al-Mamun buried him beside his father al-Rashid in the same great shrine, now known as “Mashhad al-Rida.” Around it is a magnificent mosque, one of the greatest in the world, with a dome and two minarets clad in gold. It has a library whose like I have never seen for its holdings of ancient historic copies of the Quran and very valuable historical books. Among the treasures I saw was the first half of a noble copy of the Quran in Kufic script on gazelle parchment, written in the hand of (Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn ibn Imam Ali, may God be pleased with him). The other half of this copy is preserved in the museum of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Palestine), in the same form and script and by the same scribe.

In Mashhad, besides these two tombs, I also visited the grave of the famous Persian poet “Ferdowsi,” author of the “Shahnameh.” The Iranian state had celebrated the thousandth anniversary of his death. I then left Mashhad for “Nishapur,” where I visited the grave of the renowned Iranian poet “Omar Khayyam.” From there I continued to Tehran, arriving in November 1933. An amusing incident occurred there. I was carrying a letter of introduction from my friend Mr. Baqir al-Kazimi, Iran’s ambassador in Baghdad (which I had visited on my way to India in April 1933), addressed to the Foreign Minister through the head of his office. The minister turned out to be Mr. Baqir al-Kazimi himself, who had since become Foreign Minister. Thus the letter was from him to himself, a rare coincidence. During this visit to Iran, I reached an understanding with the Iranian authorities, who showed great sympathy for the cause of Palestine and facilitated many meetings with leading mujtahids, scholars and Iranian leaders who embraced that cause. As a result, Iran’s Foreign Minister, al-Kazimi himself, presented the Palestine question to the League of Nations in the summer of 1933