ALI

(b. c. 600, Mecca; d. Jan. 661, Kufah, Iraq), in full Ali Ibn Abu Talib , son-in-law of -Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, and fourth caliph (successor to Muhammad), reigning from 656 to 661. The question of his right to the caliphate resulted in the only major split in Islam (into Sunni and Shiah branches). He is revered by the Shiahs as the only true successor to the Prophet.

Ali was the son of Abu Talib, uncle of Mohammad. Muhammad took Ali under his care when Abu Talib was greatly improvised following a drought. When Muhammad felt God's call to become his Prophet, Ali, though only 10 years old was one of the first to convert to Islam and remained his lifelong devoted follower. According to legend Ali risked his life by sleeping in the Prophet's bed to impersonate him the night that Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina in 622 to escape from enemies who were plotting to assassinate him. Ali also carried out Muhammad's request to restore all the properties that had been entrusted to him as a merchant to their owners in Mecca. Thereafter reaching Medina he married Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, who bore him two sons, Hasan and Husain.

Ali always displayed rare courage in battle during the military expeditions Muhammad undertook to consolidate Islam and obtained a lion's share of the booty. Also one of Muhammad's scribes, Ali was chosen to lead several important missions. When the hostile inhabitants of Mecca finally accepted Islam without battle, it was Ali who smashed the pagan idols in the Kabah (holy shrine). Muhammad died on June 8, 632. Some say he had unequivocally nominated Ali as his successor while he was returning from his "farewell pilgrimage" to Mecca. Others reject this claim, maintaining that Muhammad died without naming a successor. While attending the last rites of the Prophet, Ali was confronted by the fact that Abu Bakr, Muhammad's closest friend and father of Aishah (one of the Prophet's wives), had been chosen caliph. Not wanting a bloody tribal strife, Ali did not actively assert his own rights. He retired to a quiet life, during which religious work became his chief occupation. He is credited with the chronologically arranged version of the Quran. His excellent knowledge of the Quran and Hadith (sayings and deeds of Muhammad) aided the caliphs in various legal problems.  

Following the murder of the third caliph Uthman, Ali was invited by the Muslims of Medina to accept the caliphate, to which he reluctantly agreed. His brief reign was beset by difficulties due mostly to the corrupt state of affairs he inherited. Acutely aware of the neglect of the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad that his predecessors had allowed to develop, he based his rule on the Islamic ideals of social justice and equality. His policy was a blow to the interests of the Quraish aristocracy of Mecca who had grown rich in the wake of the Muslim conquests. In order to embarrass Ali, they demanded that he bring Uthman's murderers to trial, and when he rejected their request, a rebellion against him was instigated in which two prominent Meccans along with Aishah, Muhammad's widow and the daughter of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, took a leading part. This rebellion, known as the Battle of the Camel (the camel ridden by Aishah), was quelled. A second rebellion was on the point of being crushed when its leader, Muawiyah, a kinsman of Uthman and the governor of Syria, averted defeat by proposing arbitration. Ali saw through the stratagem but was forced by his army to accept the arbitration, which greatly weakened his position. Soon, he had to fight some of the very people who had earlier forced him to accept arbitration but now denounced it. Known as Khawarij (Seceders), they were defeated by Ali in the Battle of Nahrawan. Meanwhile, Muawiyah followed an aggressive policy, and by the end of 660 Ali had lost control of Egypt and of the Hejaz. While praying in a mosque at Kufah in Iraq, Ali was struck with a poisoned sword by a Kharijite, intent on avenging the men slain at Nahrawan. Two days later Ali died and was buried near Kufah.

Ali's political discourses, sermons, letters, and sayings, collected by Ash Sharif ar-Radi (d. 1015) in a book entitled Nahj al-balaghah (The Road of Eloquence) with commentary by Ibn Abi al-Hadid (d. 1258), are well known in Arabic literature.