Fatima bint Musa

Fatima al-Ma'suma
فَاطِمَة ٱلْمَعْصُومَة
Calligraphic seal of Fatima al-Ma'suma
Titleal-Ma'suma
(lit. 'The immaculate')
Personal life
Bornc. 790 CE
Medina, Abbasid Caliphate
Died816 or 817 (aged 23)
Qom, Abbasid Caliphate
Resting placeFatima Masumeh Shrine
Home townMedina
Parents
Religious life
ReligionIslam
LineageAhl al-Bayt, Alid, Fatimid, Husaynid, Banu Hashim
SectShia

Fatima bint Musa (Arabic: فَاطِمَة بِنْت مُوسَىٰ, romanized: Fāṭima bint Mūsā), commonly known as Fatima al-Ma'suma (Arabic: فَاطِمَة ٱلْمَعْصُومَة, romanized: Fāṭima al-Maʿṣūma, lit. 'Fatima The Immaculate'), was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, 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. She is particularly venerated for her piety and close relationship with her brother. Fatima was born in Medina around 790 CE. Following the death of her father in 799, she was raised in the household of her brother al-Rida. After al-Rida was summoned by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun to Khorasan and named as heir apparent in 816, Fatima set out from Medina with a group of companions to join him. However, she fell ill during the journey and eventually reached Qom, where she died days later.

The precise circumstances of her death are uncertain, and some later accounts report that she was poisoned, although this is not found in early historical sources. Fatima was buried in Qom, where her tomb subsequently developed into the Fatima Masumeh Shrine, a holy site in Shia Islam. Her burial contributed significantly to the development of Qom as the world's largest center for Shia Islamic scholarship and a significant destination of pilgrimage.[1] Her elevated status is closely associated with her lineage and relationship with the Imams. A traditional form of visitation to her shrine identifies her as a daughter of the Prophet's household, often compared to Fatima al-Zahra, daughter of the Prophet.

Biography

Fatima was born circa 790 CE in Medina to Musa al-Kazim, the seventh Imam.[2] When Musa died in 799 in the prison of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), possibly poisoned,[3] a significant group of his followers accepted the Imamate of his son Ali al-Rida, brother of Fatima.[4] In 816, al-Rida was summoned to Khorasan by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833), who designated him as the heir apparent in 817.[5] Fatima then set out to join her brother in Merv but fell ill along the way in the Sunni town of Saveh. There she asked to be taken to the nearby Shia city of Qom, where she died a few days later,[2] possibly after seventeen days.[6] Another account states that a local Shia figure by the name of Musa ibn Khazraj al-Ash'ari brought Fatima to Qom and hosted her during her final days.[6] There are also some reports that Fatima was poisoned,[6][7] though they are not mentioned in Tarikh-e Qom, a history of Qom written in 988 by Hasan ibn Muhammad Qomi.[6] Fatima thus died in 816,[2][6] or in 817.[8] Her age at the time is not known with certainty but she must have been at least twenty-one years old, considering that her father Musa was last imprisoned in 795 until his death in 799.[6]

Significance

Fatima is known by the title al-Ma'suma (Arabic: ٱلْمَعْصُومَة, lit. 'the immaculate, the infallible').[2] It is uncertain when and how she received this title but she was already referred to as such in an order issued by Jahan Shah (r. c. 1438 – 1467), the Qara Qoyunlu king of Iran.[6] Fatima is revered as the "embodiment of the feminine virtues" in Twelver Shia,[9] where she is recognized for piety and religious scholarship, and often compared to Fatima bint Muhammad (d. 632), daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (d. 632). She is revered by Twelvers as a saint who would intercede on the Judgement Day and performs miracles, such as healing those with incurable diseases. [2]

Shrine

Fatima was buried outside of Qom in a plot of land owned by Musa al-Ash'ari, which became a public endowment later. The house where she stayed, the site of her prayers, became a mosque outside of Qom.[6] Her shrine has been developed by successive generations,[10][11] patronized by the Buyids (r. 934–1062) and the Seljuks (r. 1037–1194),[12] as well as the Qara Qoyunlus (r. 1374–1468) and the Aq Qoyunlus (r. 1378–1503).[13] The current imposing complex, however, largely dates to the Safavid (r. 1501–1736) and Qajar (r. 1789–1925) eras.[13] Qom owes its status as a pilgrimage destination to the shrine of Fatima al-Ma'suma,[13] and pilgrimage to her shrine is encouraged in traditions attributed to her brother al-Rida and his son Muhammad al-Jawad (d. 835), the ninth Imam in Twelver Shia.[14] The city thus became an important center for Shia activity and learning from the eighth century onward,[15] reaching a peak in the tenth century, until it was destroyed in 1224 during the first Mongul invasion of Persia.[16]

The Persian historian Hamdallah Mustawfi found the city in ruins in his visit in the fourteenth century,[7] but it reemerged during the Safavid period.[16] In particular, the shrine was further developed in 1519 by Shah Bigum, the daughter of the Safavid king Ismail I (r. 1501–1524),[2] while the Safavid king Abbas I (r. 1588–1629) financially supported the shrine and built there a school and pilgrim hospice.[16][17][2] He did so partly to encourage pilgrimage to Shia shrines within his territory just before the Sunni Ottomans established in 1638 their rule over Iraq, where the shrines of most Shia Imams are located.[16] The theological law school there was founded in 1533,[16] known as Feyziyya after the Safavid-era philosopher Mohsen Fayz Kashani (d. 1680).[16][13] Qom later benefited from its proximity to Tehran, the royal residence of the Qajars, who further developed the shrine and buried their dead in the city.[16] The Qajar-era jurist Mirza-ye Qomi (d. 1815) particularly helped raise the academic profile of the seminary school.[13] Another phase of growth began with the arrival of Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi (d. 1937) in 1921, who founded the present theological center (hawza-ye elmiyye).[13][18] Among his students was Ruhollah Khomeini (d. 1989) who led the Iranian Revolution.[13]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Ali, Marium. "Mapping Iran's Ali Khamenei funeral: Where mourners will gather each day". Al Jazeera. Retrieved August 13, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ruffle 2004.
  3. ↑ Daftary 2013, p. 59.
  4. ↑ Daftary 2013, p. 60.
  5. ↑ Daftary 2013, pp. 60–1.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sajjadi 2019.
  7. 1 2 Donaldson 1933, p. 258.
  8. ↑ Halm 1997, p. 27.
  9. ↑ Starkey 2008, p. 532.
  10. ↑ Hulmes 2008.
  11. ↑ Drechsler 2009.
  12. ↑ Starkey 2008.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ja'fariyan 2004.
  14. ↑ Donaldson 1933, pp. 258–9.
  15. ↑ Daftary 2013, p. 61.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Halm 1997, p. 128.
  17. ↑ Donaldson 1933, pp. 259–60.
  18. ↑ Halm 1997, pp. 129–30.

References

Further reading

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