Illumination of the of Imam Reza shrine (AS) in the Safavid period Based on the historical documents of Astan Quds Razavi

Providing lighting to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (a.s.) in the city of Mashhad in Iran is one of the requirements that has been the concern of the custodians and caretakers of the holy shrine of Razavi in all historical periods from the beginning of the formation of the holy shrine until now. Many endowments and financial and administrative documents from the Safavid period have remained. Many of these documents are related to how the Holy Shrine was illuminated in the Safavid period. The number of endowments and financial and administrative documents related to lighting from the Safavid period onward shows the importance of providing it in the Razavi shrine.

Investigations show that so far, many researches have been conducted with the aim of investigating and identifying the shrine''s lighting devices left over from different historical periods. This is despite the fact that today there are few examples of a large number of these devices left. Various factors such as war and looting and converting gold and silver lighting devices into coins caused that many objects from the Safavid period and before did not remain. Therefore, it is not possible to know the lighting of the Razavi Shrine only by examining the lighting devices in the Astan Quds Museum and Treasury. Lighting devices are types of objects that were placed in different places of the holy shrine and in this way they caused light. Lighting materials also included the types of fuel required for lighting devices, the frequency of their names being repeated in endowments and documents shows that they were used a lot in the

Holy Shrine. According to the content of the remaining historical documents, identifying and examining the historical documents and documents related to the lighting of the shrine in the Safavid period will play an important role in understanding how the lighting of the shrine was done from different aspects in this historical period.

The purpose of this article is to know how the shrine was lit in the Safavid period, the methods of providing it and the types of lighting materials and devices based on the content of the endowments and financial and administrative documents of Astan Quds.

This research is of a qualitative type, which was carried out in a descriptive-analytical way, and the data were collected based on library and documentary studies and the examination of documents and endowment letters left in Astan Quds Razavi. After examining the documents and samples of the remaining lighting objects in the museum and treasury of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the results show that the use of lighting was one of the most important and first uses of Astan Quds in the Safavid period. This has led to the development of the administrative structure of Astan Quds and the employment of people in various jobs related to the lighting of the shrine. . Also, in this period, a wide range of lighting devices and materials were used, which were provided from the place of oblation and endowment.