Development and advancement of Kashanological researches and studies require extension of such studies to historical and cultural surveys on nearby regions like the cultural-civilizational domain of old Jibal. The progress of this domain has been because of development of several outstanding cities such as Kashan, Qom, Isfahan, Ray, and Hamadan. Conducting new interdisciplinary studies about history of these relating cities will result in better knowledge of them and specially, Kashan. In this article, three works of local history have been analyzed: Tarikh e Qom (history of Qom), Mahasin e Isfahan (virtues of Isfahan), and Tarikh e Kashan (history of Kashan). These books have been written in 4th, 8th, and 13th century, respectively. Investigating these writings, their historical Kashanological aspects have been studied. Kashanology must expand its borders so that the old Jibal region will be also contained; Kashan not only has been defined and confined by the neighbor cities of Qom and Isfahan at past time, but is nowadays influenced by cultural heritage of Jibal and Savad region. Writing style, process of translating from Arabic to Persian, and editing and printing of these works, which are the precious legacy of Persian literature and invaluable historical and cultural sources, have been discussed as well.

Several studies have been carried out on the necessity and quality of hierarchies of successive spaces at the entrance to the historical-religious places of Iran, but there is a dearth of research on the impact of such hierarchies on the perception of the visitors and pilgrims. There is a need for further investigation of hierarchies of entrance to historical-religious cities with holy places where pilgrims enter with high enthusiasm to achieve divine blessing. To this end, the present study attempted to investigate the hierarchy of pilgrimaging (entering) to the holy shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh (SA) during the Safavid and Qajar eras on urban and architectural scales. Moreover, the study sought to understand whether the existence of a hierarchy of entrance spaces can affect Hazrat Masoumeh (SA) pilgrims’ perceptions and behaviors. Descriptive and interpretive research methods along with library research were used to depict a proper image of pilgrimaging to the holy city of Qom during the Safavid and Qajar dynasties. The most important sources that could be used to illustrate the history of Qom and of the holy shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh (SA) were the written sources of Qom history, pictorial sources (maps, gravures, and photos) and especially travelogues by traders and visitors. Since this study aimed to investigate the mental and perceptual impacts of the entrance spaces to Qom in the past, travelogues were among the most important research resources as they contained their writers’ particular expressions of perceptions and emotions at their first visits to the intended places. The results of investigating the sources resulted in a clear image of the hierarchy of the pilgrims’ entrance to Qom. Such a hierarchy initiated at a distance of about 25 km off Qom where the dome of the holy shrine could be seen, and continued up to the dome space. In this paper, the hierarchy of the entrance to Hazrat Masoumeh’s (SA) holy shrine will be introduced for the first time presenting details about successive spaces and their impacts on the pilgrims' and visitors’ perceptions and behaviors.

The city Aran va Bidgol, located in a county with the same name, is actually the combination result of two cities of Aran and Bidgol in recent decades. Since centuries ago, this city has been a main residential, economic, and cultural center of Kashan region. Some descriptions of the city and its relating areas, such as Haraskan, are mentioned in sources of Islamic first centuries like the books Tarikh -e- Qom (history of Qom) and Zikr -e- akhbar -e- Isbahan (mentioning narratives of Isfahan). In addition, Ravandi's Qasida Nuniyya contains some information about the city in Seljuq period. In the sources of Ilkhanate era, the hamlets Bidgol and Haraskan are alluded to. In Safavid era, Aran va Bidgol considerably prospered and thousands of SharBafi (hair-weaving) workshops were set up in it; the significance of this city in Safavid era is reflected in some travel books and ritual documents of this period. A description of Aran va Bidgol in Zand era may be seen at treatise of Sharh -e- ahval -e- Molla Ali Arani (biography of Molla Ali Arani). Furthermore, the situation of the city in Qajar period is represented in Tarikh -e- Kashan (history of Kashan; written by Zarrabi), Kayfiyat -e- Balada va Bolukat -e- Kashan (state of districts and areas of Kashan), and a fascinating book about geography of Bidgol, titled as Chiraqan (lighting). Generally speaking, this article is a preliminary endeavor to acquire the historical identity of Aran va Bidgol.

This study, with a quick hint to the historical background of Qom, studies the rise of Shia and its expansion in Iran’s geographic area trying to find an answer to this questions: why was Qom introduced as a Shiite city after Islam and accepted Shiism while other cities were still in doubt in believing Islam or remaining on their ancestral religion. What are the factors influencing the adoption of Shiism and its expansion in Qom.According to historical sources and hadith, the results of the survey conducted in this study indicate that Qom people accepted Shiite thought and particularly Shia Imamieh from the very beginning of Islam. Then they tried to protect Shia and make it worldwide. Although Asharioun played a significant role in contribution and development of the Shia in the region, the main factor of Shiite influence in the region thanks to those of Arabs who were among the companions of the Prophet (pbuh) and the followers of Imam Ali (AS).

Recent studies have demonstrated controversial results and somewhat increased frequency of multiple sclerosis (MS). We reevaluated the files of MS patients from Qom Province of Iran in order to investigate the epidemiology of the disease. Demographic and clinical records of 592 MS patients were reviewed, which included; age, sex, date of birth, marital and occupation status, presenting symptoms, time of onset, type and family history of MS, and history of autoimmune or other diseases. At the time of our study, 11 patients had died, and 581 were alive with a total female-to-male ratio of 3.4. The mean age of onset of the disease was 34.25 ± 9.01 for all the patients. 11.2% of patients had positive family history of MS. The majority of patients (80.1%) showed relapsing-remitting (RR) pattern. The prevalence of MS was calculated as 50.4/100000 for Qom. Qom is located within a high risk zone of MS. Although we found evidences about the role of environmental factors, geographical distribution, and etcetera, many more studies need to be performed in this respect.

With the emergence of the new subject of "social history and lifestyle" in the West and the East, Iranian writers and researchers also studied the social history of the Iranian people, which resulted in good works. The research topics in this area were clear to some extent and the researchers paid attention to some parts of this history focusing on the social life of people. The lack of this type of research in the field of social history and lifestyle of Ahl al-Bayt and Shiites was noticed by the students of the field, and using the structure of studies on social history and Islamic lifestyle, some treatises were compiled in this regard. The result of such studies led to the addition of four units of social history of Shiites to the curriculum of the specialized centers of the Qom seminary in the field of Shia history. In other educational and research institutions of religious sciences, special attention was paid to the course of social history at MA and PhD programs, and finally, in addition to expert training, the students of the Qom's seminary wrote books, articles or master's and doctoral theses with the title “The social history of the Shia” and took an effective step in introducing their customs, symbols, lifestyle, relationships and social systems.

The history of Imamites Theology is among the important fields that demands systematic and serious studies. During the Shia history, some areas that contain a large number of Shiites provided a good setting for the constitution of influential and authoritative Seminaries. However, there isn’t any comprehensive study about Transoxanien, Mawara ul nahr (part of Middle Asia) which includes a large part of the region. The present study tries to, by using analytical- descriptive method, elaborate on the following subjects which are among the most important issues in this geographical area: identifying the outstanding theological figures and typology of their works, detecting the intellectual movements of other schools penetrating to this field and their interactions, and, lastly, the causes of stagnation and fading of this theological school. Mawara ul nahr has been under the influence of three intellectual movements: Kufah, Qom and Baghdad, and the most important one is Qom. However, the religious scholars of Mawara ul nahr have not the same views as the elders of the school thought of Qom. They regard the narrations of extremists who were trustee in Hadiths legitimate.

Qom, Kufah and Bagdad being considered as the main centers of scientific activities of Shiites since the second until the forth century After Hijrah are of significant position in regard with the Shiism studies. Nevertheless, the Seminary of Ahwaz as one the ancient and significant Shiite schools in Iran is deserved to be mentioned here, since it has been of authorized and well-known representatives in the history of jurisprudence and tradition of Shi’ah in accordance with the historical, tradition and translation sources.
Following a review on the origins of Shiism in Ahwaz, this article is to represent the scientific position of Ahwaz towards preserving and developing the school of Prophet’s family through the investigation of scientific relationship between Qom and Ahwaz.
This relationship has been developed via the movement of some scholars from Ahwaz towards Qom and vice versa, the scientific discussions between the two great households of “Al e- Mahziyar e- Ahwazi” and Qom’s Ash’arites of” as well as the presence of some specific followers of Imams in these two centers.

The greatest act of epic-mythological stories is kill the dragon. Other than Sistan’sheroes in Iran’s gladiatorship-national narratives, a number of kings also fight with dragon, creatures like dragon and dragons that have changedand they kill or capture them.In well-known sources and common narrations about him,Keixosrow Kiani is also one of these kings whohe is not a dragon race, but the story of his confrontation with the dragon is a genuine and ancient narrative that its background may be pre-Islamic sources of Iran and two different reports have survived in Arabic and Persian sources.The first report is in the book of “history of the Senii of the Moluk al-arz va al-anbia” written by Hamze Isfahani and then Zajjaji’sHomayoon nameh and Tarikhe Gozideh and Mostofi’sNozhat al goloob, in which Kexosrowkilled a dragon on the mountain between Fars and Isfahan and the other is the history narrative of Qom that the king is going to Qom to keeping back the dragon’s damage and the dragon escapes from her.The story of killing the dragon by Keyxosrowdue to lack of it in important and impressive texts such as Shahnameh and Tabari historyandagain tobe more prominent of the sacred and spiritual aspect of the king than his warfare and gladiatorship remained unknown and far from attention.

The Qur’ānic Sciences is a hundred years old and it was usually discussed in the introductory part of the Qur’ānic exegeses but thereafter, independent books were written on this subject and it became an independent science. In Qom Seminary, there has been significant progress in the field of Qur’ānic Sciences in the last hundred years, and with the presence of Ayatollah Maʿrifat (d. 1385 S.H.) in the last forty years, the field of Qur’ānic Sciences is revived in the Shia academic circle.Of course, this scientific leap in the traditional Qur’ānic Sciences (such as the history of the Qur’ān, the esoteric aspect of the Qur’ān, decisive and ambiguous verses, abrogating and abrogated verses, the foundations and principles of Qur’ānic exegesis, the sciences and techniques of recitations, etc.) and also in the new Qur’ānic Sciences (such as the language of Qur’ān, semantics and semiotics, methodology, hermeneutics, philosophy of Qur’ānic Sciences, Qur’ānic arts, etc.) has brought about publication of several books, encyclopedias, research papers in this regards, while academic courses have been initiated, and even new disciplines and specializations have been approved.In this article, using the library method and the author’s field research experiences, the history of Qur’ānic Sciences and the areas of its significant progress in the Qom Seminary during the last hundred years have been discussed.