Qom
A Shia holy city in central Iran, a major centre of seminaries and clerical authority, which played a key role in the rise of the Islamic Revolution.
Read in context →At a glance
- Shrine
- Shrine of Fatima Masumeh
- Seminary revival
- 1922 (Haeri Yazdi)
- Role
- Hub of marja'iyya & seminary
Detail
Qom is a city in central Iran and the country's foremost religious and seminary center of Shiism. It has long been an important pilgrimage site owing to the shrine of Fatima Masumeh, sister of Imam Reza. But its modern significance rests above all on the Qom Seminary (Hawza), revived in 1922 by Sheikh Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi, which became one of the two principal centers of Shia learning and the marja'iyya in the world (alongside Najaf). Qom was the home of many scholars and marjas, including Ayatollah Khomeini, and an intellectual cradle of the 1979 Revolution. Today the city is the heart of the clerical establishment and one of the main centers of religious and political power in the Islamic Republic.
Related entities
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica — 'Qom'
- Britannica — 'Qom'
- M. Moazami — studies on the Qom Hawza