The School of Qom refers to the tradition of theological institutions of Shiʿa learning in Qom, a city in southern Iran. Along with Meshhad in North Eastern Iran and Karbala and Najaf in Iraq, Qom is a major center of Shiʿism, which houses the golden domed shrine of Fatimah, the holy site named for the sister of the eighth Imam who died in 816 in Qom and was buried there. Recently a few speculative theologians of this school proffered the theoretical foundation for a theocracy commonly labeled as an "Islamic Republic"; their views have become a cause célèbre in the Muslim world in a challenge of and a confrontation with the European cultural, economic, and political dominance in many predominately Muslim states. In spite of its political charisma, Qom continues to be the source of research in the scholarship...