Esfarayen, among other cities of the province, was one of the focal points for residence of the Aryan tribes after entering Iran.

Khorasan was divided into four parts during the Muslim conquest of Persia, each section being named after one of the four largest cities, Nishapur, Merv, Herat, and Balkh.

The population history and structural changes of Razavi Khorasan province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's publications[citation needed] document its own Nishapur ceramics from those excavations.

For half a century after 1945 the site of Nishapur was ransacked to feed the international market demand for early Islamic works of art.

Besides these, Khorasan encompasses numerous religious buildings and places of pilgrimage, including the shrine of Imam Reza, Goharshad mosque and many other mausoleums and Imamzadehs which attract visitors to this province.