Jamkaran

Jamkaran Jamkarān
village
Jamkaran
Coordinates: 34°35′04″N 50°54′27″E / 34.58444°N 50.90750°E / 34.58444; 50.90750Coordinates: 34°35′04″N 50°54′27″E / 34.58444°N 50.90750°E / 34.58444; 50.90750
Country	Iran
Province	Qom
County	Qom
Bakhsh	Central
Population (2006)
• Total	8,368
Time zone	IRST (UTC+3:30)
• Summer (DST)	IRDT (UTC+4:30)
Jamkaran at GEOnet Names Server

Jamkaran Mosque
The Jamkaran Mosque in Jamkaran, Iran
Basic information
Location	Jamkaran, Iran
Geographic coordinates	34°34′59.5″N 50°54′50″E / 34.583194°N 50.91389°E / 34.583194; 50.91389
Affiliation	Shia Islam
District	Qom County
Province	Qom
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Mosque
Website	Official Website of Jamkaran Mosque
Architectural style	Islamic
Specifications
Dome(s)	5
Minaret(s)	2

Jamkaran (Persian: Jamkarān‎‎; also Romanized as Jamkarān, Jamgarān, Jam-i-Karān, and Jam‘karān) is a village in Qanavat Rural District, in the Central District of Qom County, Qom Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 8,368, in 1,747 families.

Jamkaran is located on the outskirts of Qom, and is the site of the Jamkaran Mosque, a popular pilgrimage site for Shi'ite Muslims. Local belief has it that Muhammad al-Mahdi—the Twelfth Imam, a messiah figure Shia believe will lead the world to an era of universal peace — once appeared and offered prayers at Jamkaran. On Tuesday evenings large crowds of thousands gather at Jamkaran to pray and to drop a note to the Imam in a well at the site, asking for help with some problem.

Belief in Jamkarani has been compared to that of Catholics who believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

The mosque, six kilometres east of Qom, has long been a sacred place, at least since 373 A.H., 17th of Ramadan (22 February 984 C.E.), when according to the mosque website, one Sheikh Hassan ibn Muthlih Jamkarani is reported to have met Muhammad al-Mahdi along with the prophet Al-Khidr. 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.

Sometime in 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.