[3] In 809, the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid fell ill and died in Tus, on his way to solve the unrest in Khorasan.

[5] In the 9th and 10th century, the Persian literature flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana under Samanid Empire and other Iranian dynasties.

The most famous person who has emerged from that area is the poet Ferdowsi, author of the Persian epic Shahnameh, whose mausoleum, built in 1934 in time for the millennium of his birth, dominates the town.

Other notable residents of Tus include the theologian, jurist, philosopher and mystic al-Ghazali; early polymath Jābir ibn Hayyān; the poet Asadi Tusi; the powerful Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk; the medieval polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi; the prominent Usooli mujtahid (Twelver-Shi'a law interpreter) Shaykh Tusi; and the noted Sufi mystic and historian Abu Nasr as-Sarraj.

In 1220, Tus was sacked by the Mongol general, Subutai, and a year later Tolui would kill most of its populace,[7] and destroying the tomb of Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the process.