Qom

Qom (Persian: قم; [qom] ) is the capital of Qom province, Iran. It is also the capital of Qom County and its Central District. It is the seventh largest metropolis and the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is 140 km (87 mi) to the south of Tehran, on the banks of the Qom River. Qom is a holy city in Shia Islam, as it is the site of the Fatima Masumeh Shrine, a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. She was the granddaughter of Ja'far al-Sadiq, the daughter of Musa al-Kazim, the sister of Ali al-Rida, and the aunt of Muhammad al-Jawad, the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth of the Twelve Imams. The city is the world's largest center for Shia Islamic scholarship and is a significant destination of pilgrimage, with around 20 million pilgrims visiting every year. Qom's economy is heavily dependent on pilgrimage, and the city is the most conservative in Iran. Qom is also home to Jamkaran Mosque, another holy site in Shia Islam where every year, millions celebrate Mid-Sha'ban, marking the birth of Muhammad al-Mahdi. The city has developed into a lively industrial center owing, in part, to its proximity to Tehran. It is a regional center for the distribution of petroleum and petroleum products, and a natural gas pipeline from Bandar Anzali and Tehran and a crude oil pipeline from Tehran run through Qom to the Abadan refinery on the Persian Gulf. Qom gained additional prosperity when oil was discovered at Sarajeh (fa:میدان نفتی البرز قم) near the city in 1956 and a large refinery was built between Qom and Tehran. In between the Tehran-Qom highway is the Imam Khomeini International Airport, the largest airport in Iran.