Jamkaran Mosque

Jamkaran Mosque
مسجد جمکران
The mosque in 2016
Religion
Affiliation	Shia Islam
Ecclesiastical or organisational status	Mosque and shrine
Leadership	Ali Akbar Ojaghnezhad
Status	Active
Location
Location	Jamkaran, Qom County, Qom Province
Country	Iran
Location of the mosque in Iran
Coordinates	34°34′59.5″N 50°54′50″E / 34.583194°N 50.91389°E / 34.583194; 50.91389
Architecture
Type	Mosque architecture
Style	Buyid Afsharid Safavid
Founder	Sheikh Hassan ibn Muthlih Jamkarani
Funded by	Hasan bin Muslim
Completed	373 AH (983/984 CE) 1745 CE (renovations) 19th century (sahn, renovations) 1990s (annex)
Specifications
Dome	Five
Minaret	Two
Shrine	One
Materials	Bricks; mortar; concrete; ceramic tiles
Website
jamkaran.ir (in Persian)

The Jamkaran Mosque (Persian: مسجد جمکران, romanized: Masjed-e Jamkarân), also known as Saheb al-Zaman Mosque, is a Shia mosque and shrine located in the village of Jamkaran, on the outskirts of the city of Qom, in the province of Qom, Iran. Twelver belief holds that the twelfth Shia Imam—the promised Mahdi—once appeared and offered prayers at Jamkaran.[1][2]

Many Shia Muslims go to this mosque on Wednesday nights and the night of the middle of Sha'ban - the birthday of Mahdi - and perform its rituals. The mosque has a history of over a thousand years, and receives more than 15 million pilgrims annually.[3][4]

Jamkaran was an important village in the past and its name has been mentioned many times in the history of Qom.[5] It was further developed after the residents of Ghadiriyah from the Bani Asad tribe fled to Qom, during the Mukhtar uprising in Kufa (685 CE). The mosque, six kilometres (three point seven miles) east of Qom, has been a sacred place at least since 17th of Ramadan of 373 AH (983/984 CE), when Sheikh Hassan ibn Muthlih Jamkarani reportedly met the Twelfth Imam along with the prophet Al-Khidr.[6][7]

Jamkarani was instructed that the land they were on was "noble" and that the owner, Hasan bin Muslim, was to cease cultivating it and finance the building of a mosque on it from the earnings he had accumulated from farming the land.[8][9][10][11][12] In the late Qajar and early Pahlavi periods, the mosque was half-ruined. The recent prosperity of the Jamkaran Mosque is due to the efforts of Mohammad Taqi Bafiqi. Before him, only some knowledgeable people went to the Jamkaran Mosque to spend the night. Bafiqi would walk to the mosque every Wednesday night with a group of students and offer Maghrib and Isha prayers there, and would pray there until the morning call to prayer, thus drawing people's attention to the mosque.[13]

Sometime in the decade of 1995–2005, the mosque's reputation spread, and many pilgrims, particularly young people, began to come to it. In the rear of the mosque, there is a "well of requests" where it is believed the Twelfth Imam once "became miraculously unhidden for a brief shining moment of loving communion with his creator." Pilgrims tie small strings in a knot around the grids covering the holy well, which they hope will be received by the Imam Mahdi. Every morning custodians cut off the strings from the previous day.[14]

Tuesday night is especially popular as it is said to be "the day the vision appeared and therefore the day of the week that [the Imam], although invisible, takes requests." The gathering "resembles a huge tailgate party where vendors set up in the parking lots and families set up picnic rugs and tens of thousands wander about the grounds as if waiting for the main event to happen."[15]: 83–84  More than a hundred thousand pilgrims sometimes pray outside the overflowing mosque for Maghrib prayer. In keeping with separation of the sexes, women are separated from men in their own special cordoned-off area and also have their own well.[15]: 83–4  Also on Tuesdays, the mosque kitchen provides a free evening meal to thousands of poor people.[14]

The architecture of the mosque is defined by its stunning display of Islamic art and craftsmanship, featuring intricate tile work, five majestic domes, and spacious courtyards, including the Sahib Al-Zaman Courtyard. The main prayer hall, with its impressive iwan, is adorned with verses from the Quran and Islamic motifs.[16]

• Shia Islam in Iran
• List of mosques in Iran

• History of Masjid Jamkaran (PDF). Translated by Alamdar, Sayyid Hussein. Qom, Iran: The Holy Mosque of Jamkaran Publications. 1996. Retrieved April 17, 2025 – via Al-Islam.org. (Translated from Persian).

Media related to Jamkaran Mosque at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website (in Persian)