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The City of Qom

Qom is Iran's holy city and headquarters for the Iranian clergy who run the country, though Iraq's religious centers of Najaf and Karbala provide alternative sources of theological discourse. The Shi'a religious establishments in Najaf and Qom have something of ahistorical rivalry for leadership in Shi'a theology. Qom is Iran's seveth largest city by population. Over one million people live in Qom. The Tehran-Qom-Esfahan-Shiraz highway, traverses central Iran from north to south.

Iran is populated by 89 percent Shi'a believers, only nine percent Sunni. Qom is considered a holy city because it is the site of a sacred shrine honoring a sister of the eighth Imam of the faith. In 816, Fatima, the sister of Reza the Eighth Imam, died and was buried in Qom; a shrine was erected, and the city began to develop as a major Shi'ite pilgrimage site [Mohammed's daughter Fatima is buried elsewhere]. The city is the largest center for Shi'a scholarship in the world and is much frequented by pilgrims.

For many centuries, the Hawza [seminaries] in central Iraq - at Najaf, Karbala, and Hilla - were the center of Shi'a faith. Central Iraq remained the center of Shi'a thought, even after Shi'a Islam became the state religion of Persia in 1501, at which time the Shahs of Persia assumed the mantle of the guardian of Shi'a faith, In the 20th Century, the Hawza at Qom gained prominence under the leadership of Grand Ayatollah Abd al-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi. Qom gained after the suppression of Iraqi Shi'a in the 1920's during the British Mandate period. One of Ayatollah Ha'eri's students was Khomeini, who continued to live and study in Qomafter Ha'eri's death in 1937. Sistani was born in Iran, and as a young man studied in Qom before moving to Najaf in 1952. Such movement of ideas and scholars between Najaf and Qom is not unusual.

The Assembly of Experts is based in Qom. Eighty-six Council of Guardian-approved candidates are elected by the public to eight-year terms on the assembly. The Assembly's prime responsibilities are to elect a new Supreme Leader from its membership upon the death or impeachment of the Supreme Leader, and to impeach the Supreme Leader if it determines him to be unqualified. Like the Council of Guardians, the Assembly of Experts is rarely involved in decision-making, though most members of the Assembly hold other positions in Iran's decision-making structure.

Qom is situated in a semiarid interior basin of central Iran along the Qom River, which flows down from the Zagros Mountains, through Qom, and into the large Darya-e Namak salt marsh to the city's east. Qom is bordered to the east by the western edge of the Dasht-e-Kavir (Great Salt Desert). The city depends on both ground and subterranean water sources, the latter derived from channels known as qanats.

The manufacturing of carpets in Qom began in the 20th century. The carpets are also sold under the names Ghome, Gom, Qum, Kum and Qom. Carpets from Ghom are known for their fine workmanship with pile in wool or silk. They are often manufactured with high knot density and have varied patterns, borrowed from different areas in Iran. Sometimes details are tied in silk.

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