Qum is a city in central Iran 150 kilometers (242 miles) south of Tehran. It gradually became an important Shīʿī center following the arrival of Shīʿī tribes in the early eighth century and by the tenth century was the most significant seat of Shīʿī learning. Shīʿī ḥadῑths praise Qum and endow it with honorific titles like Dāral-Muʾminῑn (Ar. abode of the believers). A factor contributing to the city’s holiness and attracting pilgrims was the tomb of Fāṭima (d. 816/17), the sister of ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā (d. 818), the eighth Imām (in later years Jews claimed that the…