Abbas Vaez Tabasi was an influential Iranian cleric who held memberships at different institutions. He was Grand Imam and Chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi board from 1979 until his death in 2016.

Mashhad is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about 900 kilometres from Tehran. In the Central District of Mashhad County, it serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province, the county, and the district. It has a population of about 3,400,000, which includes the areas of Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh.