Type Public Headquarters Qom, Iran Founded Qom, Iran | Industry Publications Revenue ? | |
Key people Institute of Ahl al-Bayt (as) for Restoration of Books Products online publications, books, etc. Profiles | ||
Rafed Network for Cultural Development is an Iran based organization that is behind Rafed.net (شبكة رافد), one of the most popular Shi'a websites.
Contents
Origins
The network is based in Qum, the Shi'a academic center of the world. It was established by Institute of Ahl al-Bayt (as) for Restoration of Books (Arabic: Institute of āl al-bayt alayhumassalam li-ihya ul-turrāth, مؤسّسة آل البيت عليهم السلام لإحياء التراث), a large institute also based in Iran that was established in 1983 and has become one of the largest providers of documentation on Shia scholarship in the world, having branches in both Lebanon and Syria.
Rafed.net
They are the owners of Rafed.net, a mainly Arabic site, as can be seen from its main page, but it also has an English section. The site is the most third most visited Shi'a site among Alexa Internet users, second only to Irna.com and al-shia.com.
The site has Qur'an translations in multiple languages, including Spanish, French, Russian, English and the original Arabic.
The site is notable for spreading the scholarship of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and is among several Shi'a sites blocked in Saudi Arabia. Joshua Teitelbaum writes:
Many in Saudi Arabia’s minority (about 12%) Shi‘i population seem to spend much of their Internet time at Arabic-language Shi‘i sites in Iran. Rafed.net, based in Qom, and other such sites, report that 45% of their traffic comes from the Kingdom. These sites are apparently banned, but the owners switch domain names often and users have developed techniques to get around the Saudi censor.