Shrine of Fatima Masumeh

The shrine of Fatima Masumeh is the reason Qom is a city of pilgrims. Fatima, sister of Ali al-Rida, the eighth imam of Twelver Shia Islam, is traditionally said to have fallen ill and died here in 816 while travelling east to join her brother in Khorasan. Her epithet Masumeh means “the sinless one”.

The tomb grew over a thousand years into a complex of courtyards, porticoes and minarets. Safavid rulers enlarged it, and several Safavid shahs are buried here, including Shah Safi and Shah Abbas II. The golden dome that dominates the skyline is a Qajar contribution: it was gilded in the early nineteenth century under Fath-Ali Shah.

Inside, the walls and ceilings are covered with ayeneh-kari, mirror mosaic, in which thousands of small cut mirrors break the light into a glittering field. Pilgrims touch and kiss the silver grille, the zarih, around the tomb, and the courtyards fill at prayer times and on religious anniversaries. Around the shrine stand the seminaries that have made Qom one of the two great centres of Shia learning. Non-Muslim visitors are generally welcome in the courtyards, often with a guide, and women are asked to wear the chador, the full-length cloak, which is lent at the gate.