ʿAlīMuslim caliph
Also known as
  • ʿAlī ibn Abū Ṭālib

c. 600



January 661

Kūfah, Iraq

ʿAlī, in full ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib   (born c. 600Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]—died January 661, Kūfah, Iraq), cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, and fourth of the “rightly guided” (rāshidūn) caliphs, as the first four successors of Muhammad are called. Reigning from 656 to 661, he was the first imam (leader) of Shīʿism in all its forms. The question of his right to the caliphate (the political-religious structure comprising the community of Muslims and its territories that emerged after the death of Muhammad) resulted in the only major split in Islam, into the Sunni and Shīʿite branches.

Names and sources

ʿAlī is known within the Islamic tradition by a number of titles, some reflecting his personal qualities and others derived from particular episodes of his life. They include Abūʾl-Ḥasan (“Father of Ḥasan” [the name of his oldest son]), Abū Turāb (“Father of Dust”), Murtaḍā (“One Who Is Chosen and Contented”), Asad Allāh (“Lion of God”), Ḥaydar (“Lion”), and—specifically among Shīʿites—Amīr al-Muʾminīn (“Prince of the Faithful”) and Mawlāy-i Muttaqiyān (“Master of the God-Fearing”). The title Abū Turāb, for example, recalls the time when, according to tradition, Muhammad entered a mosque and, seeing ʿAlī sleeping there full of dust, said to him, “O father of dust, get up.”

Except for Muhammad, there is no one in Islamic history about whom as much has been written in Islamic languages as ʿAlī. The primary sources for scholarship on the life of ʿAlī are the Qurʾān and the Hadith, as well as other texts of early Islamic history. The extensive secondary sources include, in addition to works by Sunni and Shīʿite Muslims, writings by Christian Arabs, Hindus, and other non-Muslims from the Middle East and Asia and a few works by modern Western scholars. However, many of the early Islamic sources are coloured to some extent by a bias, whether positive or negative, toward ʿAlī.


Early years

ʿAlī’s life, as recorded especially in the Sunni and Shīʿite texts, can be divided into several distinct periods separated by major events. The son of Abū Ṭālib and his wife Fāṭimah bint Asad, ʿAlī was born, according to most older historical sources, on the 13th day of the lunar month of Rajab, about the year 600, in Mecca. Many sources, especially Shīʿite ones, record that he was the only person born in the sacred sanctuary of the Kaʿbah, a shrine said to have been built by Abraham and later dedicated to the traditional gods of the Arabs, which became the central shrine of Islam after the advent of the religion and the removal of all idols from it. ʿAlī was related to the Prophet through his father and mother: Abū Ṭālib was Muhammad’s uncle and became his guardian when the boy’s father died, and Fāṭimah bint Asad acted as the Prophet’s mother after his biological mother died. When ʿAlī was five years old, his father became impoverished, and ʿAlī was taken in and raised by Muhammad and his wife Khadījah. At age 10 ʿAlī became, according to tradition, the second person after Khadījah to accept Islam. Although ʿAlī’s father refused to give up his devotion to traditional Arabic polytheism, he accepted ʿAlī’s decision, telling him, “Since he [the Prophet] leads you only to righteousness, follow him and keep close to him.”

From Mecca to Medina

The second period of ʿAlī’s life, lasting slightly more than a decade, begins in 610, when Muhammad received the first of his revelations, and ends with the migration of the Prophet to Medina in 622. During this period ʿAlī was Muhammad’s constant companion. Along with Zayd ibn Ḥāritha, who was like a son to the Prophet, Abū Bakr, a respected member of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca, and Khadījah, he helped to form the nucleus of the earliest Meccan Islamic community. From 610 to 622 ʿAlī spent much of his time providing for the needs of believers in Mecca, especially the poor, by distributing what he had among them and helping them with their daily chores.

Both Sunni and Shīʿite sources confirm the occurrence in 622 of the most important episode of this period. Muhammad, knowing that his enemies were plotting to assassinate him, asked ʿAlī to take his place and sleep in his bed; Muhammad then left Mecca secretly with Abū Bakr and reached Medina safely several days later (his arrival marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar). When the plotters entered Muhammad’s house with drawn daggers, they were deeply surprised to find ‘Alī, whom they did not harm. ʿAlī waited for instructions and left sometime later with Muhammad’s family. He arrived safely in Qubā on the outskirts of Yathrib, which soon became known as Mādinat al-Nabi (“City of the Prophet”) or simply Medina, on the instructions of the Prophet. According to some sources, he was one of the first of the Meccan followers of Muhammad to arrive in Medina.

ʿAlī and Islam to the death of Muhammad

ʿAlī was 22 or 23 years old when he migrated to Medina. Shortly after his arrival, the Prophet told ʿAlī that he (the Prophet) had been ordered by God to give his daughter Fāṭimah to ʿAlī in marriage. This union affected the entire history of Islam, for from it were born a daughter, Zaynab—who played a major role during the Umayyad period in claiming the rights of the family of the Prophet after her brother Ḥusayn was killed in Iraq—and two sons, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn. The latter two are the ancestors of those known as sharīf or sayyid (meaning “noble” and “master” respectively)—that is, descendants of the Prophet and thus, in the eyes of many pious Muslims, legitimate heirs to leadership of the Islamic community. Ḥasan and Ḥusayn also became the second and third Imams of Shīʿism (respectively) after ʿAlī. Although polygyny was permitted, ʿAlī did not marry another woman while Fāṭimah was alive, and his marriage to her possesses a special spiritual significance for all Muslims because it is seen as the marriage between the greatest saintly figures surrounding the Prophet. The Prophet, who visited his daughter nearly every day, became even closer to ʿAlī, once telling him, “You are my brother in this world and the Hereafter.” After Fāṭimah’s death, ʿAlī married other wives and fathered many other children.

During this period ʿAlī was given several important assignments, such as reciting to a large gathering of pilgrims in Mecca in 630 a portion of the Qurʾān that declared that Muhammad and the Islamic community were no longer bound by agreements made earlier with polytheists. One year later ʿAlī was sent to Yemen to spread the teachings of Islam. The Prophet also designated him as one of the scribes who would write down the text of the Qurʾān, which had been revealed to Muhammad during the previous two decades. ʿAlī’s share in the establishment of the written version of the Qurʾān is among the most important of his contributions to Islam.

ʿAlī was also deeply involved in the military defense of the Islamic community, according to both Sunni and Shīʿite sources. The Quraysh sought to destroy the community in Medina in a series of attacks that are known in Islamic history as ghazwah (“raid” or “conquest”). ʿAlī participated in all but one of these battles, and he was commander at the battles of Fadak in 628 and Al-Yamān in 632. He also had the special role of protecting Muhammad at the battles of Uḥud in 625 and Ḥunayn in 630. He fought the leading warrior of the Quraysh, Talḥah ibn Abī Talḥah, who boasted that he would defeat any Muslim sent against him. When Talḥah himself was defeated, he pleaded for mercy from ʿAlī, saying “Karrama li-lāhu wajhahu” (“May God illuminate his face with nobility”). This benediction became one of ʿAlī’s titles; used especially by Sunnis, it is usually accompanied by other customary formulae of peace and benediction.

The traditional accounts of ʿAlī’s strength and courage in these battles and his yearning for justice made him an epitome of chivalry throughout the Islamic world. In the Battle of Khaybar in 629, against a group of Medinese Jews who, having reached agreement with the Muslims and then broken their word, had barricaded themselves in a fort, ʿAlī is said, according to a very popular legend, to have torn off the door of the fort with one hand and used it as a shield. According to another legend, the archangel Gabriel, speaking to the Prophet and referring to Dhūal-fiqār, a sword that ʿAlī received from Muhammad, stated: “There is no chivalrous person but ʿAlī. There is no sword but Dhūal-fiqār.”

As Islam began to spread throughout Arabia, ʿAlī helped to establish the new Islamic order. He was instructed to write down the Hudaybiyyah agreement, the peace treaty between the Prophet and the Quraysh in 628. When Muhammad finally conquered Mecca in 630, he asked ʿAlī to guarantee that the conquest would be bloodless; this was accomplished as a result of the surrender of the Meccans and Muhammad’s forbidding the victorious Muslims from taking revenge on the Meccans, a command that ʿAlī ensured was obeyed completely. He ordered ʿAlī to break all the idols in the Kaʿbah and to purify the shrine after its defilement by the polytheism of the pre-Islamic era, which Muslims call al-jāhiliyyah (“the age of ignorance”). ʿAlī also was charged with settling several disputes and putting down the uprisings of various tribes.

At Ghadīr Khumm in 632, while returning to Medina from his last pilgrimage, the Prophet made certain statements about ʿAlī that have been interpreted in very different ways by Sunnis and Shīʿites. According to both traditions, Muhammad said that ʿAlī was his inheritor and brother and that whoever accepted the Prophet as his mawlā (“master” or “trusted friend”) also should accept ʿAlī as his mawlā. (The term mawlā is related to wīlāyah or walāyah, meaning “rule,” “initiation,” “spiritual authority,” or “power.”) The Shīʿites regard these statements as constituting the investiture of ʿAlī as the successor of the Prophet and as the first Imam; the Sunnis, by contrast, take them only as an expression of the Prophet’s closeness to ʿAlī and of his wish that ʿAlī, as his cousin and son-in-law, inherit his family responsibilities upon his death. Many later Islamic Sufis and esoterists also interpret the episode as the transfer of the Prophet’s spiritual power and authority to ʿAlī, whom they regard as the walī (usually translated as “saint”) par excellence.

ʿAlī and the first caliphs

Upon the death of the Prophet in 632, ʿAlī and Muhammad’s family took charge of the arrangements for his funeral. At the same time, discussions began concerning who should succeed Muhammad. Both the anṣār, the people of Medina who had embraced Islam, and the muhājirūn, those from Mecca who had migrated to Medina, wanted the successor to come from their group. In order to avoid division, the leaders of the community assembled at saqīfat Banī Sāʿidah (“the room with the thatched roof of the tribe of Banī Sāʿidah”) to choose a successor. After much debate, Abū Bakr was named caliph (khalīfah, “successor”), the ruler of the Islamic community. By the time ʿAlī finished with matters pertaining to the funeral of the Prophet, he was presented with a fait accompli. He did not protest but retired from public life and dedicated himself to studying and teaching the Qurʾān. He was often consulted, however, by Abū Bakr and his successor, ʿUmar, in matters of state. ʿAlī accepted the selection of ʿUmar as caliph and even gave one of his daughters, Umm Kulthūm, to him in marriage.

After the death of ʿUmar in 644, ʿAlī was considered for the caliphate along with five other eminent members of the community. One of them, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, withdrew but asked that he be trusted with choosing the next caliph, a request that was granted. He questioned both ʿUthmān and ʿAlī and decided in favour of the former. ʿAlī recognized the caliph’s authority, according to Shīʿite sources, but remained neutral between ʿUthmān’s supporters and his opponents. ʿAlī even sent his own sons to protect ʿUthmān’s house when he was in danger of being attacked. When ʿUthmān was murdered in 656 by those who considered him weak and accused him of nepotism, ʿAlī admonished his children for not having defended ʿUthmān’s house properly. ʿAlī himself was then chosen as the fourth and last of the rightly guided caliphs.

ʿAlī’s caliphate and last years

The period of the caliphate of ʿAlī, from 656 until his death in 661, was the most tumultuous in his life. Many members of the Quraysh turned against him because he defended the rights of the Hashimites, a clan of the Quraysh to which Muhammad had belonged. He was also accused of failing to pursue the murderers of his predecessor and of purging ʿUthmān’s supporters from office. Foremost among his opponents was Muʿāwiyah, the governor of Syria and a relative of ʿUthmān, who claimed the right to avenge ʿUthmān’s death. In his confrontation with Muʿāwiyah, ʿAlī was supported by the anṣār and the people of Iraq. Before he could act, however, he had to deal with the rebellion of two senior companions, Talḥah and Zubayr. Joined by ʿĀʾishāh, daughter of Abū Bakr and third wife of Muhammad, the two had marched upon Basra and captured it. ʿAlī assembled an army in Kūfah, which became his capital, and met the rebels in 656 at the Battle of the Camel. Although a peaceful settlement had nearly been reached before the fighting started, extremists on both sides forced the battle, in which ʿAlī’s forces were victorious. Talḥah and Zubayr were killed, and ʿĀʾishāh was conducted safely back to Medina.

ʿAli then turned his attention north to Muʿāwiyah, engaging him in 657 at the Battle of Siffin, the most important contest of early Islamic history after the death of the Prophet. With his army on the verge of defeat, Muʿāwiyah, on the advice of one of his supporters, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAṣ, ordered his soldiers to put pages of the Qurʾān on their lances and asked ʿAlī to allow the dispute to be resolved by reference to Qurʾānic rules. ʿAlī’s army, seeing the sacred text, put down its arms, and ʿAlī was forced to arbitrate. He chose an upright observer, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, and Muʿāwiyah chose ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAṣ. After ʿAlī lost the arbitration, Muʿāwiyah refused to submit to his authority; Muʿāwiyah then defeated ʿAlī’s forces in Egypt, where ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAṣ became governor.

Matters were made even worse by the fact that a group that considered arbitration to be a violation of the teachings of the Qurʾān rebelled against ʿAlī while also opposing Muʿāwiyah. ʿAlī’s attempts to reason with the rebels failed, and they left Kufa and Basra and assembled at Al-Narhawān. In 658 ʿAlī’s army dealt a crushing blow to the group that came to be known as the Khārijites.

Although he continued to have staunch supporters, ʿAlī’s authority was weakened in many areas during the last two years of his caliphate. A number of prominent Muslims even met in Adrūh in 659 with the thought of deposing both ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah and appointing as caliph ʿAbd Allāh, son of ʿUmar, but they did not reach a final decision. Meanwhile, some of the Khārijites decided to assassinate ʿAlī, Muʿāwiyah, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAṣ. Although the latter two escaped, ʿAlī did not: on the 19th of Ramadan in the year 661, he was struck in the back of the head with a poisoned sword while praying in the mosque of Kufa. He died two days later and was buried in Al-Najaf. Along with Qom in Iran, Al-Najaf became—and remains to this day—one of the most important seats of Shīʿite learning and also a major pilgrimage site.

Shīʿism, Sufism, and the chivalric orders


The significance of ʿAlī in all aspects of the religious and intellectual life of Shīʿite Islam can hardly be overemphasized. In the daily call to prayer in Shīʿite countries, and in some Shīʿite mosques in Sunni countries where such an act does not cause major opposition, his name is mentioned after that of the Prophet in the formula ʿAlīun walī Allāh (“ʿAlī is the saint of God”). In the annual Shīʿite religious calendar, the 19th through the 21st of Ramadan is a time of intense prayer and supplication, marking the last three days of ʿAlī’s life. Many Shīʿites spend the nights of this period, called aḥyāʾ, in mosques reciting both special prayers, many of them attributed to ʿAlī, and canonical prayers, the latter usually at least 100 times. The devotion to ʿAlī, not only as the heir of the Prophet but also as the first imam and the ancestor of all subsequent imams, has a central place in the religious consciousness of Shīʿism. There is also a vast body of Shīʿite devotional literature in both poetry and prose in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Gujarati, and many other languages related to ʿAlī.


Nearly every Sufi order traces its lineage to Muhammad through ʿAlī. Sufis, whether Sunni or Shīʿite, believe that ʿAlī inherited from the Prophet the saintly power (wilāyah or walāyah) that makes the spiritual journey to God possible. Numerous references are also to be found to him in later Sufi works. For example, such hidden or occult sciences as jafr, the science of the symbolic significance of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, are said to have been established by ʿAlī.

The futuwwāt

In Islamic civilization, the futuwwāt (“spiritual chivalry”) were military and economic orders similar to the knightly fraternities and guilds of medieval Europe. Combining craftwork or service in the military or government with spiritual discipline, these orders have played a major role in Islamic history by drawing their members more fully into the spiritual life and ethos of Islam (the craft orders still survive in some areas of the Islamic world). Whether known as futuwwāt or by other names, such as the akhi (“brotherhood”) movement in Anatolia, all of them have been associated with ʿAlī, who received the quality and power of spiritual chivalry from the Prophet. In Western terms, one might say that ʿAlī is the “patron saint” of the chivalric orders and guilds of Islam.

Metaphysics and the Nahj al-balāghah


In later Islamic philosophy, especially in the teachings of Mulla Sadra (c. 1571–1640) and his followers, ʿAlī’s sayings and sermons were increasingly regarded as central sources of metaphysical knowledge, or “divine philosophy.” Members of Sadra’s school, which still survives, regard ʿAlī as the supreme metaphysician of Islam and believe that he was the first person to have used Arabic terms to express philosophical ideas. For centuries, Muslim philosophers considered ʿAlī’s sayings—such as “I have never seen a thing except to have seen God before it” and “If the veils were to be removed from the mysteries of the world, it would not add to my certitude”—to be proof of his supreme metaphysical understanding. His widely known saying “Look at what is said and not at who has said it” summarizes a main characteristic of Islamic thought, in which schools predominate over individuals and ideas are judged by their inherent philosophical value rather than by their historical sources.

The Nahj al-balāghah

Numerous short sayings of ʿAlī have become part of general Islamic culture and are quoted as aphorisms and proverbs in daily life. They also have become the basis of literary works or have been integrated into poetic verse in many languages. Already in the 8th century, literary authorities such as ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Yaḥyā al-ʿĀmirī pointed to the unparalleled eloquence of ʿAlī’s sermons and sayings, as did al-Jāḥiẓ, an Arab man of letters, in the following century. In the 10th century one of the outstanding scholars of Shīʿism, Sayyid Sharīf al-Raḍī, assembled many of ʿAlī’s sermons, letters, and short sayings dealing with various subjects in the Nahj al-balāghah (“The Path of Eloquence”), which became one of the most widely read and influential books in the Islamic world, though it was nearly completely neglected in Western scholarship until the late 20th century. Although some Western scholars have cast doubt upon its authenticity, the matter has never been in question among the great majority of Muslims. The book continues to be a source of both religious and literary inspiration for both Shīʿites and Sunnis.

What made you want to look up ʿAlī?
(Please limit to 900 characters)
MLA style:
"Ali". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
APA style:
Ali. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Ali-Muslim-caliph
Harvard style:
Ali. 2016. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 11 February, 2016, from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Ali-Muslim-caliph
Chicago Manual of Style:
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Ali", accessed February 11, 2016, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Ali-Muslim-caliph.


Editing Tools:
We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles.
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Harvard
  • Chicago
You have successfully emailed this.
Error when sending the email. Try again later.

Or click Continue to submit anonymously: