TEHRAN –A group of Greek tourists paid a visit to the holy shrine of Fatima Masoumeh (SA) in Qom on Monday, a local official has said.

A major purpose of foreign tourists visiting the holy shrine is to make other religions aware of Islam’s high capacity to value the position of women, and each year more groups of tourists visit this holy place, Kamal Sorayya Ardakani explained on Tuesday.

Located in Qom, some 140 km to the south of Tehran, the shrine is where the sister of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Shia Imam, is laid to rest.

Each day, the holy shrine draws thousands of pilgrims and visitors from Iran and some from across the globe. According to available data, 6,427 international travelers from 82 countries visited the shrine during the first eleven months of the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 21.

People from Spain, Poland, Italy, the U.S., Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic, and Brazil constituted the highest number of international visitors to the shrine.

In 815 CE, according to legends, Hazrat Masoumeh (SA) traveled to Khorasan from Medina with a large number of her relatives to visit her brother, Imam Reza (AS).

However, the Abbasid Caliph Mamun ordered his men to stop them at Saveh, a town near Qom, which is home to a large Shia population. Mamun's soldiers killed many of her companions in Saveh, where she fell ill. She, therefore, decided to take refuge in Qom.

The Shia Muslims of Qom extended a very warm welcome to Hazrat Masumeh (SA) and his companions upon their arrival in the city. However, she was in critical condition and eventually died in 816 CE.

Earlier, Mamun killed his brothers Hazrat Ahmad ibn Musa (AS) and Seyyed Alaeddin Hossein (AS) in the Fars region.

The second holiest city in Iran after Mashhad is Qom, which is home to many natural and cultural tourist destinations as well as important seminaries and madrasas.

ABU/AM