Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 600-661)

Hashemite birth and contested genealogy

Ali is born in Mecca around 599-600, traditionally placed on 13 Rajab, into the clan of the Banu Hashim, one of the most respected — though not the richest — branches of the Quraysh tribe.^[21] He is the son of Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad's paternal uncle and chief of the Hashemite clan after his own father's death, and of Fatima bint Asad, herself of Banu Hashim through another branch.^[22] This double belonging makes Ali Muhammad's first cousin on the male line, and places him, from birth, at the heart of the clan that will soon protect the nascent Prophet against Quraysh hostility.

A widely diffused tradition — taken up beyond the Shiite circle alone — holds that Ali was born inside the Kaaba itself, a unique case in all of classical Islamic biography.^[23] Contemporary academic historians remain cautious, however: genealogical data and birth narratives going back to the 6th century escape, by nature, any independent verification of the Muslim sources themselves, written more than a century after the facts.^[24] This methodological reservation, common among scholars of Islam, does not call into question the essentials of Ali's family setting, but invites distinguishing the relatively solid historical core (filiation, clan, kinship with Muhammad) from later legendary developments (exact place of birth, marvellous circumstances).

Taken in by Muhammad during a famine

Around the age of five, a drought strikes Mecca and impoverishes Abu Talib, then burdened with a large family. Muhammad — already financially comfortable thanks to his marriage to Khadija bint Khuwaylid — proposes to his uncle to take charge of one of his children to lighten his burden; he persuades his other uncle, al-Abbas, to do likewise.^[25] Al-Abbas takes in Ja'far, the future Ja'far al-Tayyar ("the one who flies", martyr of Mu'ta in 629), while Muhammad takes Ali under his roof. Ali thus grows up in the very household of the future prophet and of Khadija — a fact Shiite tradition retains as proof that Ali, unlike nearly all other companions converted in adulthood, never practised idolatry of his own will.

The first convert? A founding disagreement

Around 609-610, when he is only about ten years old, Ali counts, according to the most widespread tradition, among the very first Muslims — for Shiism and for part of the early Sunni sources, he would even be the very first male convert, before Abu Bakr himself.^[26] The episode most often invoked in support of this priority is the "banquet of the Banu Hashim" (da'wat dhu'l-'ashira), reported by Ibn Ishaq in Ibn Hisham's recension: gathering the members of his clan to announce his mission to them, Muhammad is said to have asked which of them would be his supporter, his brother and his successor — only young Ali, says the account, stood up to answer the call.^[27]

Al-Tabari (d. 923), more cautious than his predecessors, reports several contradictory traditions on the exact order of conversion between Ali, Abu Bakr and the freedman Zayd ibn Haritha, without deciding personally.^[28] Other Sunni sources distinguish Ali as the "first child convert" and reserve the title of first adult convert for Abu Bakr or Zayd — a nuance which, from the very first Muslim generations, already reveals the question of Ali's spiritual priority as a political as much as a biographical issue.^[29] The historian Wilferd Madelung, whose reference study on Muhammad's succession is regularly identified by academic criticism as leaning toward the reading favourable to Ali, nevertheless regards this priority of conversion as one of the best-attested elements of Ali's biography, although its political interpretation remains disputed.^[30]

In 622, on the eve of the Hijra, a group of Quraysh chiefs surrounds Muhammad's house in Mecca with the intention of assassinating him in his sleep. Ali then agrees to lie down in the Prophet's bed, wrapped in his cloak, to suggest his presence and allow Muhammad to escape toward the cave of Thawr, before rejoining Medina a few days later.^[31] This Laylat al-Mabit ("night of lying down"), reported by Sunni as well as Shiite sources, counts among the very rare episodes of Ali's life on which both traditions agree without reserve — a fact remarkable enough to be underlined, since nearly all of his later biography will on the contrary be the object of divergent readings.

The exegetical tradition, taken up by Shiite commentators as well as by some classical Sunni tafsirs, attaches the following Qur'anic verse to this sacrifice:

"And among men is one who sells himself seeking God's pleasure. And God is full of compassion toward His servants." — Qur'an, sura al-Baqara, verse 2, 207^[32]

Ali remains in Mecca only long enough to restore to their rightful owners the deposits entrusted to the Prophet by Meccans — Jews and polytheists included — who, despite the ambient religious hostility, continued to trust him as an honest depositary.

Marriage to Fatima az-Zahra

According to the most widespread biographical tradition, Abu Bakr and then Omar ibn al-Khattab had each asked for the hand of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad and Khadija, and met with refusal.^[33] The marriage was finally contracted with Ali, probably in the course of year 1 or 2 of the Hijra (623-625), according to some chronologies shortly after the Battle of Badr — Wikishia, a Shiite source, advances the precise date of 1 Dhu al-Hijja year 2 (May 25, 624).^[34] The full account of this marriage, of its children — Hasan, Husayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum —, and of the couple's life belongs to the article devoted to Fatima az-Zahra, which develops it in detail; only the elements specific to Ali's own biography will be noted here.

A dowry become a legal reference

Having nothing to offer as a dowry (mahr), Ali sold, at Muhammad's suggestion, his armour — a mail coat nicknamed al-hutamiyya, an earlier gift of the Prophet — to Othman ibn Affan, for a sum the versions place between 400 and 480 silver dirhams.^[35] Othman, says tradition, then returned the coat of mail to Ali as a wedding gift. This amount, reported notably by Abu Dawud (hadith no. 2125) and by al-Nasa'i (hadith no. 3375) via a chain going back to Ibn Abbas, became in classical Sunni jurisprudence the mahr al-sunna — the reference dowry deemed modest and in keeping with the prophetic example, as opposed to the excessive dowries that some later jurists would judge contrary to the spirit of simplicity of early Islam.^[36]

In Muhammad's lifetime, Ali takes part in nearly all the great battles of the young Muslim community, distinguishing himself both as standard-bearer and as a fighter feared for his personal strength and courage.

Badr, Uhud and the legend of the sword Dhu'l-Fiqar

At the Battle of Badr (624), Islam's first military victory, Ali is the Muslims' standard-bearer; there he kills in single combat Walid ibn Utba, brother of the future Hind bint Utba, and, according to another tradition, also Talha ibn Abi Talha, standard-bearer of the polytheists.^[37] It is at the end of this battle that Muhammad is said to have offered him, according to a tradition reported by al-Tirmidhi but which he himself qualifies as hasan gharib — that is, resting on a single and poorly corroborated chain of transmission —, the double-pointed sword Dhu'l-Fiqar, since become one of the most recognizable symbols of Shiite and Sufi iconography.^[38]

At Uhud (625), Ali fiercely defends a wounded and surrounded Muhammad. The biographical tradition reported by al-Tabari — but absent from the canonical hadith collections — has a voice from heaven proclaim, at that moment of the fighting: "No hero but Ali, no sword but Dhu'l-Fiqar" (la fata illa 'Ali, la sayfa illa Dhu'l-Fiqar).^[39] This formula, extremely popular in Shiite as well as Sufi popular piety and iconography, is however judged fabricated (mawdu') by classical hadith critics such as Ibn al-Jawzi, on account of the weakness of its chains of transmission — a judgment that invites placing it among edifying legends rather than historically established facts.^[40]

The Trench duel against Amr ibn Abd Wudd

During the Battle of the Trench (Khandaq, 627), the Quraysh champion Amr ibn Abd Wudd, reputed to be worth a thousand men in combat, crosses the trench dug on Muhammad's orders and issues a single-combat challenge that no Muslim dares take up. Muhammad, according to tradition, first refuses to let Ali engage before yielding; Ali kills Amr ibn Abd Wudd at the end of a fight that has remained famous in Islamic memory, causing the confederate tribes to retreat in rout.^[41] A hadith, whose exact degree of authenticity remains discussed by hadith specialists, attributes to Muhammad this appraisal of the duel: "Ali's duel against Amr ibn Abd Wudd, on the day of the Trench, outweighs all the good deeds of my community until the Day of Resurrection."^[42]

Khaybar: the standard, the healed eyes and the contested gate

During the siege of the Jewish fortress of Khaybar (628), Muhammad announces on the eve of the decisive assault: "Tomorrow, I shall give the standard to a man by whose hand God will grant victory." The next day, Ali, suffering from his eyes, is brought before him; Muhammad touches his eyes, which heal at once, before handing him the standard in these terms reported in Muslim's collection:

"I shall give the standard to someone by whose hand God will grant victory, who loves God and His Messenger, and whom God and His Messenger love." — Muhammad, reported by Sahl ibn Sa'd, quoted in Sahih Muslim, hadith 2406, Book of the Companions' Merits^[43]

This same episode appears, in very close terms, in Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith 3701, which makes it one of the best-attested facts of Ali's military biography.^[44] Tradition further reports that Ali killed in single combat the Jewish champion Marhab, defender of the al-Qamus fortress — the very one Abu Bakr, a few days earlier, had failed to take.^[45]

A much later popular tradition, very widespread in Shiite iconography, also holds that Ali tore the gate of the Khaybar fortress off with his bare hands to use it as a shield or a bridge, a gate that forty men together could not afterwards lift. This episode is however judged inauthentic by the most rigorous Sunni hadith critics: al-Sakhawi declares all the chains of transmission reporting it extremely weak, a judgment shared by al-Bayhaqi and Ibn Kathir.^[46] This is a characteristic example of an edifying legend born of popular veneration for Ali, to be carefully distinguished from the facts established by historical hadith criticism.

Tabuk and the hadith of Aaron's position

The Tabuk expedition (630) against the Byzantine Empire is the only great campaign in Muhammad's lifetime in which Ali does not take part: the Prophet leaves him behind as interim governor of Medina. On this occasion is reported one of the most famous hadiths concerning Ali — accepted, rare enough a fact to be underlined, by the Sunni collections as well as by Shiite tradition:

"Are you not content, Ali, to be to me what Aaron was to Moses, except that there will be no prophet after me?" — Muhammad, reported in Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith 4416, and Sahih Muslim, hadith 2404, also transmitted by Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Sunan Ibn Maja^[47]

Agreement on the hadith's authenticity does not, however, extend to its interpretation. Sunnis see in it a simple mark of honour and personal trust — Aaron never having succeeded Moses as lawgiver, but only seconded him in his lifetime —, with no dynastic scope. Shiites, on the contrary, read in it an implicit designation: just as Aaron was, according to the Qur'an itself, fully associated with Moses' authority, so Ali would be with Muhammad's.^[48] This divergence of interpretation, already present over a text consensual in its authenticity, foreshadows the far more radical disagreement that will open two years later at Ghadir Khumm.

The sermon at the pond of Khumm

On 18 Dhu al-Hijja of year 10 of the Hijra (March 16, 632), on the return from the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad halts the pilgrims' caravan near the pond — or oasis — of Khumm, not far from al-Juhfa, on the road between Mecca and Medina.^[49] Before a large crowd, he takes Ali's hand and speaks a sentence that has since stood at the centre of the most fundamental controversy in Islamic history:

"Of whomsoever I am the mawla, Ali is also his mawla. O God, befriend whoever befriends him, and be the enemy of whoever is his enemy." — Muhammad, at Ghadir Khumm, reported notably in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, hadith 3713, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal's Musnad^[50]

This hadith appears, in neighbouring formulations, in an exceptionally high number of chains of transmission — more than thirty according to Ahmad ibn Hanbal's Musnad, attributed to more than ten distinct Companions —, also reported by al-Nasa'i (Khasa'is 'Ali, hadith 79) and Ibn Maja (hadith 121).^[51] Al-Tirmidhi himself qualifies it as hasan gharib for the version he transmits, but later hadith authorities — al-Dhahabi, who judges it mutawatir (transmitted by such a number of chains as to exclude collusion), Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani and al-Haythami — regard it as broadly well attested, whatever the reservations concerning this or that particular chain.^[52]

"Mawla": one word, two readings

The whole controversy turns on a single Arabic word, mawla, whose root w-l-y ("to be close to", "to have authority over") covers, according to the classical lexicographer Ibn Manzur (Lisan al-'Arab), more than forty possible meanings: master, lord, client, freedman, ally, patron, protector, guardian — or successor.^[53]

The Sunni reading holds that the episode, however broadly recognized its authenticity, praises Ali's piety and rank without instituting a political succession — all the more so as the sentence is immediately followed by a blessing formula ("befriend whoever befriends him") which, on this reading, resembles a prayer more than a legal act of appointment.^[54] The Shiite reading, conversely, regards Ghadir Khumm as the very moment Islam was "perfected" — a traditional Shiite attachment to Qur'anic verse 5, 3 — and when Ali was explicitly instituted wasi, spiritual and political legatee of the Prophet.^[55] This day is celebrated each year by Shiites as Eid al-Ghadir, the second religious festival in importance after Ashura.^[56]

What scholars of Islam say

On academic ground, the controversy also runs through university studies themselves. Wilferd Madelung, in his reference study on Muhammad's succession, argues that Ali was explicitly designated at Ghadir Khumm and by other converging indications, and that the schism that followed was not inevitable but resulted from concrete political choices that marginalized his claim.^[57] Hassan Abbas, in his recent biography published by Yale University Press, follows a close reading.^[58] Several academic reviews of these two works note, however, that their authors lean, one as much as the other, toward a reading favourable to the Alid cause of the early sources — a respected scholarly thesis, but one that does not represent a historiographical consensus.^[59] Laura Veccia Vaglieri, in her Encyclopaedia of Islam article, embodies conversely a more classically cautious position: she acknowledges the reality of the event — the taking of the hand, the rhetorical question addressed to the crowd — without deciding in favour of an explicit succession reading, retaining rather a sense of patronage and protection.^[60]

Ali's absence at Saqifa

At Muhammad's death, on June 8, 632, while Ali and the Prophet's close family attend to the funeral rites, part of the Ansar — Medinan Muslims — gathers at the Saqifa (covered hall) of the Banu Sa'ida clan to appoint a successor from their own ranks. Alerted, Abu Bakr, Omar and Abu 'Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah — the only Muhajirun present — hasten there; after a sharp debate, Omar takes Abu Bakr's hand and pledges him the first oath of allegiance (bay'a), carrying the assembly along.^[61] The full detail of this assembly, and of the contested episode of a possible raid on Fatima's house to force Ali into submission, is developed in the articles devoted to Omar ibn al-Khattab and Fatima az-Zahra.

Wilferd Madelung notes that the Ansar sought above all to retake political control of Medina, not an election in the modern sense, and that their chief Sa'd ibn Ubada had to be reduced to submission by force according to several sources — a sign that substantial resistance first existed among them.^[62] Omar himself would later describe this decision as a falta — a hasty, ill-considered agreement — a phrase Madelung retains as the possible source of the tensions that would lead, a quarter-century later, to the first great discord (al-fitna al-kubra).^[63]

The late oath

According to Sunni accounts, which rely notably on passages of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Ali pledges allegiance to Abu Bakr only about six months later, after Fatima's death, then voluntarily choosing to preserve the unity of the nascent community rather than perpetuate division.^[64] Shiite tradition, conversely, affirms that this oath was extorted under duress. Madelung himself sums up the situation by observing: "It is very likely that Ali did not pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr until his wife Fatima died within six months."^[65] Having lost, with Fatima's death, his main political support, Ali then renounces his immediate claims to the caliphate — a political compromise, on Madelung's reading, not a recognition of his predecessors' full legitimacy.^[66]

Respected counsellor under Omar and unlucky candidate against Othman

During the caliphate of Omar ibn al-Khattab (634-644), Ali holds a position of respected religious and legal counsellor, without exercising any provincial governorship. At Omar's death, assassinated in November 644, Ali is among the six members of the electoral council (shura) instituted by the dying caliph to appoint his successor — alongside Othman ibn Affan, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Talha ibn Ubayd Allah.^[67] The detail of this council, of the interrogation conducted by Ibn Awf and of Ali's refusal to commit beyond the Qur'an and the Sunna — a condition Othman, for his part, accepts without reserve — is developed in the article devoted to Othman ibn Affan, which notably reports Ali's later testimony defending the Qur'anic recension decided by his unlucky rival.

Othman's caliphate (644-656) ends in growing contestation, in which several of Ali's close associates — Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Ammar ibn Yasir — are involved, before the caliph is besieged and then assassinated in his own house on June 17, 656.^[68] Ali is acclaimed caliph the very next day, in the full presence of the insurgents who had just killed Othman — a circumstance that at once mortgages, in the eyes of part of the community, the legitimacy of his own caliphate.

An election under insurgent pressure

Ali's bay'a is pledged on June 18, 656 at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.^[69] Ali first shows reluctance to accept, precisely because those pressing him most strongly are the provincial insurgents responsible for Othman's murder; he would have preferred a role of counsellor (wazir) rather than the caliphal charge itself.^[70] He finally yields under the combined pressure of the Ansar, the Muhajirun and the Medinan notables. About 500 to 600 Companions then pledge allegiance; Madelung judges this bay'a less marked by coercion than Abu Bakr's in 632.^[71] Notable figures nevertheless refuse their allegiance, among them Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Abd Allah ibn Umar and Usama ibn Zayd.^[72] Support for Ali remains broad among the Ansar, the Muhajirun and the insurgents themselves, but distinctly narrower among the Quraysh, in particular the Umayyads, who aspired to their own share of power.^[73]

A policy of restitution and equality

Once caliph, Ali undertakes to redistribute equitably the Public Treasury's revenues among all Muslims, following according to tradition Muhammad's own example — he is said to have had the Kufa treasury's contents distributed every Friday.^[74] Above all he announces his intention to reclaim the public lands Othman had granted to his relatives during his reign, widely perceived as tainted with nepotism.^[75] This policy contrasts sharply with Omar's, who distributed state revenues according to merit and seniority in Islam, de facto creating class differences; Ali seeks on the contrary to undo this social hierarchy in the name of an ideal of equality among believers.^[76]

Madelung sees in this political intransigence a sign of "political naivety", a refusal of any compromise with the realities of power; the scholar of Islam Mahmoud Ayoub prefers to see "idealism" rather than naivety, noting that this uncompromising uprightness, combined with egalitarian policies, alienated a significant part of the Arabs, in particular the powerful Quraysh tribe.^[77] Direct consequence: Talha and Zubayr, Quraysh companions who had amassed considerable fortunes under Othman, revolt against Ali after his refusal to grant them particular favours — a link the scholar of Islam Sayyid Husain Jafri establishes directly with the crisis that follows.^[78]

The Battle of the Camel

Convinced, with Talha and Zubayr, that Ali is deliberately delaying punishment of Othman's killers, Aisha bint Abi Bakr raises an army at Basra. The clash, known as the Battle of the Camel, takes place on December 8, 656 (15 Jumada II 36 AH): the fighting, centred on the camel bearing Aisha's litter, lasts about four hours, from noon to sunset.^[79] On Madelung's low estimates, losses amount to about 2,500 dead on the coalition side against 400 to 500 on Ali's side.^[80] Talha is killed in combat, likely by Marwan ibn al-Hakam; Zubayr, who had left the battlefield before the decisive clash, is assassinated shortly after by partisans of al-Ahnaf ibn Qays.^[81] Ali prevails, treats Aisha with respect and has her escorted back toward the Hejaz by her half-brother Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr.^[82] The full account of this battle, of its causes and of its consequences for Aisha's memory, is developed in the article devoted to Aisha bint Abi Bakr.

Ali himself, in a sermon preserved by Shiite tradition, will harshly judge his two main adversaries' breach of allegiance:

"Each of these two [Talha and Zubayr] ardently aspired to seize power, even at the expense of his own ally." — Ali ibn Abi Talib, Nahj al-Balagha, sermon 148, compilation attributed to al-Sharif al-Radi^[83]

Kufa, new capital

After his victory, Ali transfers the seat of the caliphate from Medina to Kufa, a garrison town in Iraq. The reasons are first strategic: it is on Kufa's army that Ali can count in case of open conflict with Mu'awiya, governor of Syria; the transfer also answers the concern to spare Medina and Mecca further civil troubles comparable to those that had cost Othman his life.^[84] This move, definitive, marks the end of the role of political capital Medina had held since the Hijra.

Qur'ans raised on lances

Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, governor of Syria and Othman's kinsman, refuses to recognize Ali's caliphate until his cousin's killers are punished. Negotiations fail, and the two armies meet at Siffin, on the Euphrates bank near present-day Raqqa, from May 657, the main fighting taking place on July 26-28, 657 (8-10 Safar 37 AH).^[85] On the first day, Ali's right wing gives ground; on the second, the Iraqis drive back the Syrian left wing, forcing Mu'awiya to flee his own pavilion in haste; the third and fourth days see the advantage turn decisive for Ali.^[86]

It is then that, on the advice of his counsellor Amr ibn al-As, the Syrian army, on the verge of defeat, hoists pages of the Qur'an on its lances, chanting: "Let the Book of God judge between us!" — a gesture that at once suspends the fighting.^[87]

The contested arbitration of Adhruh

Ali accepts, on the very basis of the Qur'an which he cannot refuse to invoke, the principle of an arbitration (tahkim): he delegates Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, while Mu'awiya delegates Amr ibn al-As. The two men meet at Adhruh. According to the traditional account, widely spread but whose precise historicity remains debated by critical historians, Abu Musa is said to have publicly announced Ali's deposition; but Amr ibn al-As, instead of symmetrically proclaiming Mu'awiya's deposition, only confirmed Ali's and proclaimed his own camp victorious — a manoeuvre judged disloyal toward his counterpart, which lastingly weakened Ali's authority and consolidated, conversely, Mu'awiya's political position.^[88]

In accepting arbitration, Ali was de facto treating Mu'awiya on an equal footing — a gesture that angers part of his own partisans, who proclaim that "judgment belongs to God alone" (la hukma illa li-llah), judging that Ali had committed a grave fault in remitting to men a decision that belonged only to the Book of God.^[89]

The partisans who reject the Siffin arbitration form a distinct group, the Kharijites ("those who go out"), who accuse Ali of blasphemy for consenting to this arbitration rather than remitting himself to divine judgment alone.^[90] Withdrawn to Nahrawan, they demand that Ali publicly acknowledge his "error" and deliver up Othman's killers — a paradoxical demand, these same Kharijites having originally counted among the anti-Othman insurgents who had brought Ali to power.

The confrontation, known as the Battle of Nahrawan, takes place on July 17, 658 near the canal of the same name, not far from Baghdad. Ali disposes of about 14,000 men against Kharijite forces initially estimated at 4,000, reduced to 2,800 after some 1,200 fighters accepted the amnesty offered before the battle.^[91] The outcome is a massacre: about 2,400 Kharijites killed, against only seven to thirteen men on Ali's side.^[92] The Kharijite movement, though militarily crushed, nevertheless survives in residual forms until the 10th century, and leaves a lasting imprint on Islamic political theology through its radical doctrine of excluding the believer in grave sin.^[93]

Ibn Muljam and the Qatami plot

Sources hesitate between January 26, 28 or 30, 661 (17, 19 or 21 Ramadan 40 AH) for the date of the attack that costs Ali his life — the most widespread consensus retains 19 Ramadan (January 28).^[94] The assassin, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam, is a dissident Kharijite acting in revenge for the Nahrawan defeat. According to al-Tabari, Ibn Muljam meets at Kufa a group of the Taym al-Ribab tribe mourning its Nahrawan dead, including a woman named Qatami, who demands Ali's assassination as her "marriage dowry".^[95] Ibn Muljam recruits two accomplices, Shabib ibn Bujra and Wardan ibn al-Mujalid, whose blows miss their target; captured after their flight, they are executed.

The Kufa mosque and the secret burial at Najaf

On 19 Ramadan (January 28, 661), Ali is struck on the top of the skull with a poisoned sword-blow as he goes to the Great Mosque of Kufa for the morning prayer. He dies about two days later, aged 62 or 63.^[96] Before dying, he is said to have requested either strict application of retaliation against Ibn Muljam, or his pardon; his son Hasan finally has the assassin executed.

For fear of desecration, Ali's body is buried secretly, without the exact location of the tomb being made public. Only under the Abbasid caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809) is the location said to have been revealed and identified; the present Najaf shrine, one of the most venerated places in all of Shiite Islam, will only be built much later, under the Safavid shah Safi (r. 1629-1642).^[97]

At Ali's death, his elder son Hasan ibn Ali is acclaimed caliph at Kufa, on 21 Ramadan 40 AH (January 661). The balance of power is however very unfavourable to him: according to al-Tabari, his forces count about 40,000 men, with low morale and logistics weakened by five years of uninterrupted civil war, against about 60,000 Syrian troops of Mu'awiya, better supplied and loyal.^[98] In August 661, Hasan concludes with Mu'awiya a treaty by which he cedes the caliphate on condition that the latter govern according to the Qur'an and the Sunna, that a council appoint his successor — hence with no direct hereditary transmission — and that Hasan's partisans benefit from a general amnesty.^[99]

Mu'awiya then enters Kufa without opposition and receives allegiance throughout the Muslim empire; this year will be called by the early sources "the year of unity" ('am al-jama'a).^[100] According to Ibn Abi'l-Hadid (d. 1258) and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 967), Mu'awiya, once in power, publicly disavows the treaty's terms, declaring he had not fought the Iraqis so that they would practise Islam — which they already did — but to be their master.^[101] This rupture marks the foundation of the hereditary Umayyad dynasty, which will govern the Muslim world until 750, and definitively closes the era of the four "rightly guided" caliphs opened by Abu Bakr in 632.

First Imam of Twelver Shiism

For Twelver Shiism (Ithna 'Ashariyya), today the majority branch of Shiism, Ali is the first of the twelve Imams, legitimate successor of Muhammad by divine appointment (nass) and not by community election.^[102] The doctrine requires each Imam to be appointed by divine decree transmitted through the Prophet, and to be infallible (ma'sum), exempt from error and sin.^[103] The line runs from Ali to his sons Hasan and Husayn, then to their descendants down to the twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, entered according to this doctrine into minor occultation in 874 then into major occultation since 941 — awaited, in Shiite theology, for his eschatological return.^[104]

The founding "wali" of Sufism

Nearly all Sufi brotherhoods (turuq) — Qadiriyya, Chishtiyya, Suhrawardiyya, Nurbakhshiyya and many others — trace their initiatory chain (silsila) back to the Prophet through Ali.^[105] The scholar of Islam Alexander Knysh notes that Sufism, as an organized movement, owes its official origins to Muhammad and to his cousin and son-in-law Ali, regarded by the majority of Sufis as the first among them, having received from Muhammad a level of spiritual guidance then transmitted to subsequent generations.^[106] One notable exception nevertheless exists: the Naqshbandiyya brotherhood traces its own chain not to Ali but to Abu Bakr, a particularity that underlines this order's attachment to doctrinal sobriety and to strict affiliation with the first caliph.^[107]

The Nahj al-Balagha: sermons, letters and sayings

The Nahj al-Balagha ("The Path of Eloquence") is a collection of more than two hundred sermons, some eighty letters and about five hundred sayings attributed to Ali, compiled at the turn of the 10th-11th century by the Shiite scholar al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015), more than three and a half centuries after Ali's death.^[108] The authenticity of the attribution to Ali himself, as opposed to later composition embellished by al-Radi, has been debated since the Sunni historian Ibn Khallikan (d. 1282), the first to challenge it; some orientalists even attributed the writing to al-Radi's brother, al-Sharif al-Murtada (d. 1044).^[109] More recent research, notably by the scholar of Islam Husain M. Jafri, has however traced a substantial part of the content back to sources predating al-Radi, which nuances the wholesale rejection of the attribution; the orientalist Laura Veccia Vaglieri herself judges that "a large part" of the content is probably authentic.^[110] Whatever the exact share of authenticity, the work is recognized, including by non-Shiite readers, as one of the summits of classical Arabic eloquence, having inspired more than a hundred commentaries (sharh) across Islamic history.^[111]

Its longest and most studied letter, letter 53, addressed to his governor of Egypt Malik al-Ashtar, sets out principles of just governance and compassion toward all subjects, without distinction of belief or social condition — a text regarded, including by contemporary non-Shiite jurists, as one of the first systematic theorizations of the ethics of power in Islamic lands.^[112] Among the most quoted sayings is this one, addressed to his disciple Kumayl:

"O Kumayl, knowledge is better than wealth: knowledge guards you, whereas it is you who must guard wealth." — Ali ibn Abi Talib, Nahj al-Balagha, saying no. 147, compilation attributed to al-Sharif al-Radi^[113]

The Eid al-Ghadir festival and the Najaf shrine

Besides the Eid al-Ghadir already mentioned, Ali's shrine at Najaf, in Iraq, is regarded by Shiites as the fourth holiest place in Islam after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It welcomes, by estimates, several million pilgrims each year, placing it among the most frequented pilgrimage sites in all of Shiite Islam.^[114]

The fourth rightly guided caliph for Sunnism

For the Sunni tradition, conversely, Ali remains the fourth and last of the "rightly guided" caliphs (al-khulafa' al-rashidun) — a Companion of the very first rank, a recognized authority on the Qur'an and Islamic law (fiqh), praised for his courage, honesty and unconditional devotion to Islam, but without the specific doctrinal status — infallibility, imamate by divine right — conferred on him by Shiism.^[115] One point in the history of ideas deserves to be noted: Sunni veneration for Ali, today considerable, is in part a relatively later development after his death, part of the credit for which is traditionally attributed to the great traditionalist Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), who helped fix its place in the canonical Sunni hadith corpus.^[116]

The Catholic Church has historically had no direct contact with Ali ibn Abi Talib: the Eastern Christians of his time — Copts, Syriacs, Byzantines — knew him mostly, like his predecessors, as a conquering sovereign during the great Muslim expeditions, not as a theological interlocutor. No magisterial document, encyclical or Holy See declaration mentions Ali ibn Abi Talib specifically; there is no dedicated Catholic position on this figure, and it would be dishonest to invent one.

On doctrinal substance, the Church's position remains that set out in What does the Church say about Islam?: esteem for Muslims who "adore the one God, living and subsisting, merciful and almighty, creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men", as the Second Vatican Council formulates it — but refusal to recognize Muhammad as a prophet in the biblical sense, the Qur'an as revealed word, or any aspect of the Shiite imamate as belonging to a divinely instituted designation, public Revelation being closed with Christ and the Apostles.^[117] Lumen Gentium specifies that "the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who will judge humanity on the last day" — a text taken up almost word for word by the Catechism of the Catholic Church at § 841.^[118]

The French Catholic scholar of Islam Louis Massignon, a specialist in Muslim mysticism and notably the martyred Sufi al-Hallaj, studied the Shiite and Sufi notion of walaya (proximity, spiritual alliance with God) — of which Ali is, in this tradition, the founding figure —, without however having devoted any work specifically dedicated to Ali himself; his works pass mainly through his research on Hallaj and on Salman al-Farisi.^[119] On a purely academic and historical plane, independently of any theological judgment, Ali's figure illustrates with particular force how the question of legitimate authority — who succeeds the founder, by what criterion, with what scope — marked the history of Islam from the very beginning, in a structurally different way from the question, proper to Christianity, of apostolic succession in a Church already instituted by Christ Himself in the Apostles' lifetime.

• Muhammad (c. 570-632) — the life of Islam's prophet, Ali's cousin and father-in-law.
• Abu Bakr (c. 573-634) — the first caliph, to whom Ali pledges allegiance only several months after his election.
• Omar ibn al-Khattab (c. 584-644) — the second caliph; the Saqifa assembly and the incident of Fatima's house are developed in detail.
• Othman ibn Affan (c. 576-656) — the third caliph, the candidate chosen over Ali at the council of six in 644; his assassination opens the way to Ali's caliphate.
• Fatima az-Zahra (c. 605-632) — Ali's wife, daughter of Muhammad and mother of Hasan and Husayn.
• Aisha bint Abi Bakr (c. 614-678) — the detailed account of the Battle of the Camel, which opposes Aisha to Ali in 656.
• What does the Church say about Islam? — the contemporary magisterial position, from Vatican II to the Catechism.