{ʽ}Alī (ibn Abī Ṭālib)

born с 600, Mecca

died January 661, Al-Kūfah, Iraq

Cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and fourth caliph (656–661).

ʽAlī was a ward of Muhammad, just as Muhammad himself had been a ward of ʽAlī's father, Abū Ṭālib. An early convert to Islam, he helped foil an assassination plot against Muhammad and, following the Hijrah to Medina (622), fought beside him against his enemies, gaining renown as a soldier. Since some in the early Muslim community claimed that Muhammad did not name any successor and others claimed that he named ʽAlī, the controversy over ʽAlī's claim to the caliphate resulted in the fundamental schism in Islam that eventually led to the creation of the Shīʽite (from shīʽat ʽAlī, "party of ʽAlī") and Sunnite branches of the religion. His willingness to compromise with his adversaries during the first fitnah led some of his troops to desert and form the Khārijite sect, one of whose members later assassinated ʽAlī. In later Islamic hagiography, ʽAlī was held up as the paradigm of youthful chivalry and virtue by both Shīʽites and Sunnites. See also al-Husayn ibn Alī; Battle of Karbalā; Muāwiyah.

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