(fl. 14th c. BC), a prophet in Islam, Moses’ brother, whom he appointed over the Israelites.

(d. ca. 32/653), from the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, paternal uncle of Muḥammad and ʿAlī and eponym of the Abbasid dynasty.

(d. between 18/639 and 35/656), of the Sulaym tribe, pagan poet and warrior who converted to Islam after Muḥammad’s conquest of Mecca.

caliphal dynasty that came to power in 132/750 after defeating the Umayyads and ended in 656/1258 with the sack of their capital, Baghdad, by the Mongols.

(d. 68/686), ʿAlī’s cousin, governor, and staunch supporter, who fought in all his battles, a prolific hadith narrator and esteemed scholar.

See Ibn al-Kawwāʾ

(d. ca. 38/658), stepbrother of Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydallāh and the agent Muʿāwiyah sent to recruit in Basra after the Battle of Ṣiffīn. Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī was killed by ʿAlī’s agent, Jāriyah ibn Qudāmah al-Saʿdī. (See further: Ḥ 4:34–53.)

(d. after 80/699), from the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, son of Jaʿfar al-Ṭayyār, who was killed in the Battle of Muʾtah. ʿAbdallāh was ʿAlī’s nephew, son-in-law, and staunch supporter.

(or Dujunnah, or Diḥyah, lived during ʿAlī’s r. 35–40/656–661), one of ʿAlī’s followers who narrated his words. Not much is said about him in the sources, as evidenced also by the confusion about his name. (See further: Ḥ 13:18; B 680.)

(d. ca. 32/653), early Companion of Muḥammad and prolific transmitter of hadith, famed also for his knowledge of the Qurʾan. He opposed ʿUthmān’s standardization of the holy book. He settled in Kufa, where he taught, and ʿAlī reportedly encouraged the Kufans to respect Ibn Masʿūd’s teachings.

see Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī

(d. 73/692), from the Jumaḥ clan of Quraysh, who fought with Ṭalḥah and Zubayr at the Battle of the Camel against ʿAlī and escaped from the battlefield. Later, he became a follower of Ibn al-Zubayr and was killed with him. (See further: B 652; Ḥ 11:125.)

(d. 73/693), son of the second caliph, ʿUmar, brother-in-law of Muḥammad, and prolific transmitter of hadith. Ibn ʿUmar was among the handful of prominent Companions who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī and sat out his battles.

(d. after 40/661), from the Asad clan of Quraysh, one of ʿAlī’s followers, even though ʿAlī had slain his father, uncle, and brother at the Battle of Badr. Brother of Muḥammad’s wife Sawdah bint Zamaʿah, ʿAbdallāh married a daughter of another of Muḥammad’s wives, Umm Salamah, from her previous marriage. (See further: B 678; Ḥ 13:10.)

(d. 73/692), son of the prominent Companion al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, who fought with his father against ʿAlī in the Battle of the Camel. During Umayyad rule, Ibn al-Zubayr laid claim to the caliphate and exercised control over the Ḥijāz and Iraq for almost a decade before being killed by Umayyad forces.

(d. 86/705), son of the Umayyad caliph Marwān I and half-brother of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik. He served under both as governor of Egypt.

(r. 65–86/685–705), Umayyad caliph.

(fl. 6th c. AD), chieftain of Quraysh, whose son Hāshim was Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s great-grandfather. His other son, ʿAbd Shams, was the Umayyads’ progenitor.

(d. ca. 579 AD), patriarch of the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s paternal grandfather. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib raised Muḥammad in the first eight years of his life, after the death of his parents.

(d. 36/656), from the Umayyad clan, killed fighting against ʿAlī during the Battle of the Camel. (See further: B 651; Ḥ 11:123–124.)

(d. ca. 31/652), early Muslim convert from the Zuhrah clan of Quraysh, key supporter of Abū Bakr’s nomination to the caliphate and presiding member of the Shūrā Council that elected ʿUthmān.

(d. after 36/656), from the Jumaḥ clan of Quraysh, fought against ʿAlī at the Battle of the Camel.

(fl. 6th c. AD), chieftain of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, father of Umayyah, and great-grandfather of Muʿāwiyah. ʿAbd Shams and Hāshim were twins whose foreheads were reportedly separated by a sword strike, taken as an omen for enmity among their descendants.

(d. 1905), Grand Mufti of Egypt and Shaykh al-Azhar, author of a brief word-list commentary on Nahj al-Balāghah, with an important introduction.

see Cain and Abel

a prophet in Islam, originator of the Kaʿbah rites. Abraham is the progenitor of the Arabs and the Jews through his sons Ishmael and Isaac respectively.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), son of ʿAmr ibn Sufyān ibn ʿAbd Shams, commander who led Muʿāwiyah’s vanguard in the Battle of Ṣiffīn and served as ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ’s aide when he took Egypt for Muʿāwiyah. Abū al-Aʿwar’s mother was Christian, while his father had fought against Muḥammad at Uḥud. During the early Muslim conquests, Abū al-Aʿwar served under various Umayyad commanders in Syria and later remained attached to them.

(d. ca. 52/672), Companion of Muḥammad and supporter of ʿAlī who participated in his battles. Abū Ayyūb had taken part in the Muslim conquest of Egypt and later participated in the Umayyad expedition against Constantinople, where he died and is buried. (See further: Ḥ 10:111–112; B 591–592.)

(r. 11–13/632–634), of the Taym clan of Quraysh, prominent Companion of Muḥammad and first of the four Sunni caliphs. He was the father of Muḥammad’s wife ʿĀʾishah.

(d. 32/652), Muḥammad’s Companion, ʿAlī’s strong supporter, and pious preacher, exiled by ʿUthmān to Rabadhah for his support of ʿAlī and his criticism of Umayyad impiety. (See further: Ḥ 8:252–262; B 473–474.)

(d. ca. 28/649), famous pre-Islamic poet of the Hudhayl tribe, who probably embraced Islam together with his tribe in 9/630.

(d. 59/679), Companion of Muḥammad and prolific transmitter of hadith. Although there are some contrary reports, it appears that Abū Hurayrah leaned to the Umayyads. He is said to have been with ʿUthmān when he was killed, held back from pledging allegiance to ʿAlī, and later supported Muʿāwiyah.

(d. 2/624), from the Makhzūm clan of Quraysh, fierce enemy of Muḥammad, polemically called Abū Jahl: Father of Ignorance. Abū Jahl was killed fighting against Muḥammad at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(d. 74/694), from the ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿah clan of the Suwāʾ tribe, who settled in Kufa. Abū Juḥayfah served as chief of ʿAlī’s police force and would stand at the foot of the pulpit when ʿAlī orated. He narrated hadith from the Prophet and from ʿAlī.

(fl. 6th c. AD), son of Murrah ibn ʿAmr from the Hudhayl tribe, pre-Islamic poet known as al-Mashʾūm (the Inauspicious One).

(d. 2/624), Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s paternal uncle and fierce enemy, assigned by the Qurʾan with his wife to hellfire (Qurʾan, Masad 111:1–5).

(d. ca. 48/668), ostensibly one of ʿAlī’s supporters but one who caused him great harm. Abū Mūsā was an early convert to Islam who took part in the conquest of Iraq, served as governor of Basra under ʿUmar and ʿUthmān and as the locally appointed governor of Kufa at the chaotic end of ʿUthmān’s reign. When ʿAlī instructed him to rally the Kufans in the lead-up to the Battle of the Camel, Abū Mūsā refused and ʿAlī dismissed him. He was later imposed on ʿAlī as his representative in the post-Ṣiffīn arbitration, where he ruled against his master.

(d. ca. 62/682), Yemeni convert to Islam of ascetic bent, who settled in Syria, an associate of Muʿāwiyah, sent as emissary to ʿAlī in the lead-up to the Battle of Ṣiffīn.

(d. 32/653), of the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, Muʿāwiyah’s father, and leader of the Meccan opposition against Muḥammad. Abū Sufyān converted to Islam when the Muslims conquered Mecca and later participated in the Syrian conquests. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(d. 620 AD), patriarch of the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, ʿAlī’s father, and Muḥammad’s paternal uncle and foster-father, who offered him the clan’s protection.

(d. after 37/657), ʿAlī’s scribe in Kufa. Not much else is known about him.

(d. 224/838), prolific philologist from Khurasan who authored works on lexicography, jurisprudence, Qurʾanic sciences, and hadith. His book titled Gharīb al-ḥadīth (Rare words in the hadith) became an instant classic. Cited by Radī in Nahj al-Balāghah.

(d. 86/705), early convert to Islam and transmitter of hadith. Abū Umāmah served as intermediary between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah during and after the Battle of Ṣiffīn, but the reports are contradictory about where his loyalties lay.

a prophet in Islam and the first human.

(d. after 38/658), from the tribe of Kindah, remonstrated with ʿAlī about marching to Syria, brother of the notorious al-Ashʿath ibn Qays. (See further: R 1:315; B 308.)

the pre-Islamic period in which inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula worshipped idols. Ignorance here is specifically meant as ignorance of the one true God.

(lit. “people of the house”), Muḥammad’s family, according to the Shiʿa, his daughter Fāṭimah, her husband ʿAlī, and their descendants.

covenant, testament, or document of appointment.

see protected peoples

(fl. late 2nd/8th c.), mentioned as narrator of oration § 1.231, likely from the generation after Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765) or the next one, among the leaders and narrators of the Shiʿa. (See further: Ḥ 13:18; B 680.)

(d. 72/691), chieftain of the Tamīm tribe and resident of Basra, who had a reputation for sagacity and was instrumental in persuading his tribe to accept Islam. Aḥnaf sat out the Battle of the Camel but fought on ʿAlī’s side at Ṣiffīn. He later allied with the Umayyads to fight against the Kharijites and Shiʿites. (See further: B 470; Gh 2:253.)

city in the Khuzistan province of southwestern Iran on the Dujayl River, conquered by the Muslims in 17/638.

see Confederates

(d. 58/678), daughter of the first caliph, Abū Bakr, and one of Muḥammad’s wives. She, with Ṭalḥah and Zubayr, led an army against ʿAlī at the Battle of the Camel.

(n.d.), who features in oration § 1.207, is an otherwise unknown individual not mentioned in the sources. Ibn Abī al-Ḥadīd (Ḥ 11:37) states that the man was actually named al-Rabīʿ ibn Ziyād al-Ḥārithī and that the name ʿAlāʾ is an error in Raḍī’s transcription.

(r. 35–40/656–661), Muḥammad’s cousin and ward, who married his daughter Fāṭimah. ʿAlī is the first Shiʿi Imam and the fourth Sunni caliph. (See details of ʿAlī’s biography in Introduction.)

(d. 95/713), Shiʿi Imam following his father, martyr of Karbala, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī. Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn was present with Ḥusayn at the Battle of Karbala but fell ill and did not take part in the fighting. He later composed a set of supplications, famously known as al-Ṣaḥīfah al-Sajjādiyyah.

(d. 270/883), Chief of the Zanj, who led a fifteen-year rebellion of East African slaves, from 255/869 to 270/883, against the Abbasids, which ravaged southern Iraq.

also translated as Helpers, the people of Medina from the tribes of Aws and Khazraj who supported Muḥammad when he migrated there from Mecca.

ancient pre-Islamic people, reportedly among the first speakers of Arabic and residents of Mecca. (See further: Ḥ 10:93–94; B 588; R 2:190; F 304.)

see Commander of the Faithful

(d. 37/657), eminent Companion of the Prophet and staunch supporter of ʿAlī who was killed in the Battle of Ṣiffīn. Muḥammad had prophesied that ʿAmmār would be killed by the “treacherous party,” and the Shiʿa see his death at Ṣiffīn as proof of Muʿāwiyah’s iniquity. (See further: Ḥ 10:102–107; B 590.)

(d. 5/626), of the ʿĀmir ibn Luʾayy tribe, famous pagan warrior whom ʿAlī slew in single combat at the Battle of the Confederates. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(fl. 1st/7th c.), Muʿāwiyah’s brother, from the Umayyad clan of Quraysh, taken captive at the Battle of Badr by ʿAlī.

(d. 43/664), Muʿāwiyah’s chief advisor at the Battle of Ṣiffīn, proverbial for his cunning. Earlier commander of the Muslim armies that conquered Egypt during the reign of ʿUmar, ʿAmr was dismissed by ʿUmar for corruption, but was later governor there for the Umayyads. Before he accepted Islam, ʿAmr had been one of Muḥammad’s fiercest enemies. (See further: Ḥ 6:281–326.)

(d. ca. 50/670), Companion of Muḥammad and a supporter of ʿAlī. He commanded a battalion in ʿAlī’s army at the battles of the Camel and Ṣiffīn.

(d. 85/704), resident of Kufa, poet, and a leader of the Hamdān tribe who participated in the Muslim conquest of Persia. ʿAmr was ʿAlī’s staunch follower, who fought in all his battles and served as his governor in Isfahan. He was also a follower of ʿAlī’s son Ḥasan.

garrison cities in the early Islamic period. In ʿAlī’s time, the major garrison cities were Kufa and Basra in Iraq, and Fusṭāṭ in Egypt. Initially set up to serve the early conquests, by his time they had become permanent and important settled towns in the region. Other towns in Iran and Central Asia are also identified in ʿAlī’s time as housing permanent garrisons, and as such may be included under this appellation.

(d. 93/712), resident of Medina, Muḥammad’s servant from the age of ten, and prolific narrator of hadith, although Shiʿa sources accuse him of widespread forgery. Anas was among the handful of prominent Companions who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī and sat out his battles, and who also refused when ʿAlī entreated all those who had heard Muḥammad’s words about him at Ghadīr Khumm to testify to what they had heard.

pre-Sasanian town on the Euphrates, in western Iraq, conquered by the Muslims in 12/634, whose ruins are situated 5 kilometers northwest of present-day Falluja. Lying on a cultivable plain near the first navigable canal between the two great rivers, Anbar controlled an important crossing in early Islamic times. It was also strategically important as the head of the irrigation system of arable lands in Iraq.

see Dajjāl

(d. ca. 50/670), ʿAlī’s brother, who was vocal in his support for him but for a brief period accepted funds from Muʿāwiyah. He later rejected Muʿāwiyah’s sponsorship and returned to Medina. (See further: Ḥ 11:250–254.)

Arabia to the ancients, land mass that projects southwards from the main body of the Middle East, surrounded on three sides by sea. Important to Muslims as the birthplace of Islam and its Prophet Muḥammad and site of the Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina, Arabia was the seat of the Muslim empire for a brief two decades after Muḥammad.

post-Ṣiffīn adjudication at Dūmat al-Jandal in Ramaḍān 37/February 658, with Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ representing ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah respectively. The arbitration ended with Abū Mūsā ruling against his master, ʿAlī, and ʿAmr ruling for his master, Muʿāwiyah. ʿAlī rejected the outcome of the arbitration, declaring it contrary to the Qurʾan.

city in the Fars province of Iran, near Shiraz, surrounded by fertile countryside, built by the Persian emperor Ardashīr (r. 226–240 AD) at the site of the ancient Achaemenid city of Gūr. Conquered by the Muslims in the early 1st/7th century, Ardashīr-khurrah was renamed Firuzabad in the 4th/10th century. The site of the ancient city is located three kilometers east of the new city also named Firuzabad.

caravan stop near Ṭāʾif, between Mecca and Medina (See further: Ḥ 13:303.)

tribe in northern Arabia, whose people led a mainly nomadic life in pre-Islamic times. In the Muslim wars of conquest, the Asad served in Iraq and Persia. Most settled in Kufa, where they evolved from warriors to men of learning, including many who handed down the Shiʿa tradition. Smaller groups were incorporated into the Syrian army and settled near Aleppo.

(d. ca. 7/629), pre-Islamic poet, one of the composers of the famous set of long poems known as the Hanging Odes.

(d. early 2nd/7th c.), a close companion of ʿAlī and a prolific transmitter of his words, including the famous testament to Mālik al-Ashtar. An account of the killing of Ḥusayn at Karbala is also attributed to him. He belonged to the tribe of Tamīm, was a resident of Kufa, and fought alongside ʿAlī at Ṣiffīn.

(d. 40/661), Kufan noble of the Kindah tribe who revolted at Muḥammad’s death. He later repented and fought for the Muslims at the Battle of Yarmūk, and he served as governor of Azerbaijan during ʿAlī’s reign. Despite fighting on ʿAlī’s side at the Battle of Ṣiffīn, Ashʿath was instrumental in forcing ʿAlī to accept arbitration and to appoint Abū Mūsā as arbiter.

(d. after 36/656), Basran ascetic, brother of ʿAlī’s supporter ʿAlāʾ or Rabīʿ.

see Ḥassān ibn Ḥassān al-Bakrī al-Balawī

see Mālik ibn al-Ḥārith al-Ashtar

see Camel

(or al-Aswad ibn Quṭnah, or al-Aswad ibn Zayd ibn Quṭbah; fl. 1st/6th c.), commander of the Ḥulwān garrison during ʿAlī’s caliphate, named in § 2.59 (see note there re the confusion about his genealogy).

lit. wellspring of dates, so called because of its abundant palms, a small town in Iraq west of the Euphrates, on the frontier between Syria and Iraq. In early Islamic times, ʿAyn al-Tamr commanded the military approaches from the western desert to Kufa; it was attacked by Muʿāwiyah’s commander al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr al-Anṣārī in 39/659. Today the town is called Shithāthah and lies 128 kilometers west of Karbala.

Sasanian town in northwest Iran conquered by the Muslims in 22/643 under the command of Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, an early Companion of Muḥammad and close associate of ʿAlī. Al-Ashʿath ibn Qays was governor of Azerbaijan during the caliphates of ʿUthmān and ʿAlī.

site of the first pitched battle between the Muslims and the Meccans, in 2/624, the year after Muḥammad’s migration to Medina. Badr is located 160 kilometers southwest of Medina and 50 kilometers inland from the Red Sea.

archipelago in the Persian/Arabian Gulf consisting of 33 islands offshore from present-day eastern Saudi Arabia, site of the ancient town of Tylos. Emperor Ardashīr conquered it in the first half of the third century AD, and Sasanian control lasted until ca. 6/628, when the population voluntarily converted to Islam. Also used in the sources to describe the eastern seaboard of the Arabian Peninsula.

(d. 679/1280), early Twelver Shiʿi commentator of Nahj al-Balāghah, philosopher and theologian active in Bahrain, famous for his commentaries on the works of Avicenna.

capital of the Abbasid caliphate from its founding in 145/762 until the fall of the dynasty in 656/1258, with a small interregnum when the capital was in adjacent Sāmarrāʾ. Located at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Baghdad was a major hub for political and intellectual activity. Raḍī, compiler of the present volume, lived his entire life in this city.

garrison city founded in 17/638, during the Islamic conquests of southern Iraq, located near the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab, the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Battle of the Camel was fought just outside Basra early in ʿAlī’s caliphate.

see Mecca

see Badr

see Camel

see Confederates

see Ḥunayn

see Khaybar

see Muʾtah

see Nahāwand

see Nahrawān

see Qādisiyyah

see Ṣiffīn

see Uḥud

see Ibn Funduq al-Bayhaqī

pastoral nomads or semi-nomads of the Arabian Peninsula.

see Qurʾan

(d. after 575 AD), pre-Islamic poet of the Asad ibn Khuzaymah tribe, predecessor of the Umayyad poet Farazdaq. Bishr’s poems were collected by the anthologists Aṣmaʿī and Ibn al-Sikkīt, and the philologist Abū ʿUbaydah wrote a commentary.

(d. 74/693), son of the Umayyad caliph Marwān I and half-brother of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, under whom he served as governor of Iraq.

(d. 40/661), sometimes called Ḥajjāj, from the Ṣuraym clan of Tamīm, first to utter the Kharijite slogan, ⟨No rule save God’s!⟩ (lā ḥukma illā li-llāh). Burak was one of three Kharijites who conspired to assassinate ʿAlī, Muʿāwiyah, and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in the same night. He undertook to kill Muʿāwiyah but was captured and executed.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), identified by Raḍī as a Kharijite who called out in ʿAlī’s hearing their slogan, ⟨No rule save God’s!⟩ (§ 1.182). The commentators identify him with the drunkard pagan poet b. 595 AD who migrated to Syria and converted to Christianity (See further: Ḥ 10:130; B 597).

(d. 70/689), of the ʿĀmir ibn Luʾayy tribe, one of Muʿāwiyah’s particularly brutal commanders, who fought with him at Ṣiffīn. Earlier, Busr took part in the Muslim conquest of Syria and probably of Egypt under ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. Muʿāwiyah sent Busr in 37/658 to attack Medina, Mecca, and Yemen, where he killed or forced out ʿAlī’s commanders and terrorized the locals. (See further: Ḥ 1:340.)

refers to the eastern half of the Roman empire, with its capital in Constantinople, which survived for a thousand years after the western Roman empire crumbled. Constantinople was conquered in 1453 AD by the Ottoman Turks, who named it Istanbul.

two sons of the Prophet Adam.

name of a battle fought outside Basra in Jumādā II 36/ November–December 656 between the Caliph ʿAlī on one side, and Muḥammad’s widow ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr and two Quraysh Emigrants, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydallāh and al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, on the other. The battle is named for the camel that ʿĀʾishah rode onto the battlefield and is a metaphor for the rider herself. The rebel leaders and their Basran supporters are referred to in the sources as “associates of the Camel” (aṣḥāb al-Jamal).

bitter desert plant used for medicinal purposes. Swallowing or peeling colocynth was a metaphor in early Arabic for bitter grief.

caliphal title in Islam, according to the Shiʿa associated primarily with ʿAlī. The title was also used by the caliph-imams of the Fatimid dynasty.

individuals who had sustained personal contact with Muḥammad and are revered for their sincere service to Islam in its nascent stage. Key figures in the early history of Islam, Muḥammad’s Companions are also the first transmitters of his statements and deeds.

name of a battle in 5/627 fought by the Meccan Quraysh, joined by several other tribes, to form a force of 10,000 men with 600 cavalry against the Muslims. Muḥammad foiled their attempt to storm Medina by digging a protective trench, and the battle is also known as the Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq). Unable to enter, the confederates besieged Medina, but their confederacy broke up after a fortnight, and the siege was abandoned. Its failure strengthened Muḥammad’s position. ʿAlī played a major role by slaying the enemy champion ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Wadd in single combat.

see protected peoples

(d. 64/684), Muʿāwiyah’s commander, active at the Battle of Ṣiffīn and in its aftermath. (See further: Ḥ 2:113–117; B 225).

the Antichrist. According to Islamic tradition, he is an evil man who will appear at the end of time, signaling the approach of judgment day.

largest city in Syria, earlier under Byzantine rule, conquered by the Muslims in 14/635. Muʿāwiyah was governor of Damascus during the reigns of ʿUmar and ʿUthmān, and after ʿUthmān’s death he fought ʿAlī. After ʿAlī’s death in 40/661, Muʿāwiyah became caliph and Damascus remained the Umayyad seat of government of the Muslim empire until the Abbasids defeated them in 132/750 and set up their capital in Baghdad.

attributive of Dārīn, an island near Qaṭīf, on the east coast of present-day Saudi Arabia. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Dārīn was the main port of Bahrain, through which musk was imported from India, which is why Dārī musk is famous. (See further: B 549; Ḥ 9:268.)

(fl. 10th c. BC), the biblical King David, a prophet in the Islamic tradition, mentioned in the Qurʾan as someone granted prophecy, kingship, wisdom, and justice, as well as being the recipient of the Psalms. Muḥammad’s hadith and ʿAlī’s orations emphasize David’s fervent prayer and fasting.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), an individual who is said to have memorized and narrated ʿAlī’s words to Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī (§ 1.128). There is some confusion about his identity: Ibn Abī al-Ḥadīd identifies him as a freedman of ʿAlī’s sister Umm Hānī bint Abī Ṭālib (Ḥ 8:253). More often, the sources name Umm Hānī’s freedman as Bādhām (full name: Abū Ṣāliḥ Bādhām), adding that he narrated hadith. Elsewhere, they speak of a freedman of Muḥammad’s wife Juwayriyah, named Dhakwān (full name: Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān Dhakwān ibn ʿAbdallāh), who likewise narrated hadith. Yet elsewhere, they speak of another Dhakwān, freedman of the Hāshim clan or of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), individual from Yemen who asked ʿAlī to describe God (§ 1.177), identified by the sources as among the leaders and narrators of the Shiʿa. (See further: Ḥ 13:18; B 680.)

caravan stop east of Kufa in the direction of Wāsiṭ, where ʿAlī camped enroute to Basra, where he fought the Battle of the Camel. Dhū Qār was also the site of a major early 7th-century AD battle between the Arabs and the Sasanian Persians. (See further: Ḥ 2:187–188.)

(d. 117/735), important Bedouin poet of the Umayyad era.

see Khuzaymah ibn al-Thābit

(d. 38/658), Kharijite killed at Nahrawān, called thus because of a lump of flesh on his shoulder. Some sources identify Dhū al-Thudayyah as Ḥurqūṣ ibn Zuhayr al-Saʿdī, a leader of the Bajīlah tribe, who was killed fighting ʿAlī at Nahrawān. Ḥurqūṣ is in turn identified as ʿAmr Dhū al-Khuwayṣirah al-Tamīmī, who was insolent to Muḥammad regarding the distribution of war spoils. (See further: Ḥ 13:183–184; B 771–772; F 364–365.)

(d. after 40/661), of the clan of Fihr from the Quraysh tribe, a loyal associate of ʿAlī, reported in several early sources to have spoken eloquently of his late master’s virtues at the court of ʿAlī’s archenemy, Muʿāwiyah. (See further: Ḥ 18:225–226, R 3:294–295).

supplication.

(d. 8/630), of the Hawāzin tribe, famous poet and warrior who lived mostly in the pre-Islamic period. Durayd was reportedly killed at the age of one hundred, fighting against Muḥammad in the Battle of Ḥunayn.

site of the post-Ṣiffīn arbitration in 37/658, with Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ representing ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah respectively. It was an oasis on the route between Medina and Damascus in early Islamic times, and part of Syria. It is located today in the Jawf province of Saudi Arabia, southwest of the provincial capital, Sakākah.

refers in the early Islamic period both to the province and to its capital city, Fusṭāṭ. Egypt was conquered by the Muslims in 22/643, under the command of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. At the onset of ʿAlī’s caliphate, in 35/656, the province pledged allegiance to him, but following the arbitration in 37/658, ʿAmr, now Muʿāwiyah’s chief advisor and governor-designate, killed ʿAlī’s governor, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, and took over Egypt.

those who migrated with Muḥammad from Mecca to Medina, and those who migrated from elsewhere to be with him. Along with the Allies, they are revered by later Muslims for their sincere service to Islam in its difficult early years and are considered among Muḥammad’s closest Companions.

together with the Tigris, one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia. Originating in Turkey, it flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris and empties into the Arabian/Persian Gulf. The major cities of early Islamic Iraq—Kufa, Basra, and later Baghdad—were all built along or near the Euphrates.

village near Khaybar, with abundant dates and grain, a three-day journey from Medina in early Islamic times. After Muḥammad’s death, his daughter Fāṭimah claimed ownership of Fadak as her inherited right, a right denied her by Abū Bakr. The Umayyad caliph ʿUmar II (r. 99–101/717–720) returned Fadak to Fāṭimah’s heirs.

appellation applied to the Kharijites. (See further: Ḥ 13:183–184; B 771–772; F 364–365.)

see Ahl al-bayt

(d. 114/732), Umayyad-era poet who composed eulogies for the Umayyad caliphs, also famous for a lengthy poem in praise of the Shiʿi Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. When Farazdaq was young, his father reportedly brought him to Iraq to visit ʿAlī.

Arabicized form of Pārs, English Persia, province in southwestern Iran, with Shiraz as its main city. Earlier center of the Achaemenid and Sasanian dynasties, the Muslims conquered Fars in 28/648, and it became a major province of the Islamic empire.

(d. 11/632), ʿAlī’s wife and Muḥammad’s youngest daughter, about whom he said, ⟨May my life be ransom for yours, Fāṭimah, you are the queen of the women of paradise.⟩ She died young, just two months after her father. Fāṭimah had four children with ʿAlī: Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, Zaynab, and Umm Kulthūm, all of whom played key roles in the political and religious life of early Islam.

one-fifth share mandated by the Qurʾan of the spoils of war and other specified forms of income, set aside for the Prophet and other designated beneficiaries (Qurʾan, Anfāl 8:41).

tribe descended from Kinānah and Muḍar, residing in the area north of Mecca in Wādī Qadīd, famous for its members’ courage and loyalty. (See further: R 1:203; B 211.)

or Successors, appellation applied to the second generation of Muslims, directly following Muḥammad’s Companions.

derogatory term referring to those members of the Quraysh, including Muʿāwiyah’s father, Abū Sufyān, who remained Muḥammad’s committed enemies until forced to capitulate upon his conquest of Mecca. On that day, instead of forcing them into captivity as per the standard practice, Muḥammad pardoned them, saying, “You are freedmen.”

originally a military encampment on the Nile alongside the Byzantine fortress of Babylon, built in the wake of the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 22/643, and thence capital of the province of Egypt. It was replaced in 358/969 as the capital by the conquering Fatimids’ newly built city of Cairo.

archangel in Islamic tradition, who served as God’s messenger in bringing revelation to the prophets, including Muḥammad.

oasis located 5 kilometers from Juḥfah, on the caravan route between Mecca and Medina, where Muḥammad delivered an important oration to a large gathering of Muslims following his farewell pilgrimage, and declared, “For whomsoever I am Mawlā, ʿAlī is henceforth his Mawlā.” The Shiʿa interpret the word Mawlā here to mean “master” and deem it proof of Muḥammad’s designation of ʿAlī as his successor. Sunnis interpret the word to mean “kinsman,” and state that the Prophet said what he said to protect ʿAlī from those who wished him harm, but the words did not signify an appointment of succession. Ghadīr Khumm is also used to denote the day and the event.

(d. ca. 40/666), Tamīmī chieftain famed for his generosity, father of the renowned Umayyad-era poet Farazdaq. A contemporary of Muḥammad, Ghālib is also said to have visited ʿAlī in Iraq and introduced Farazdaq to him; ʿAlī advised Ghālib to teach his son the Qurʾan. (See further: Ḥ 19:96; R 3:441–442.)

see Sufyān ibn ʿAwf al-Ghāmidī

rare words in Muḥammad’s hadith, ʿAlī’s sayings, and elsewhere in the Arabic literary corpus, that medieval critics deemed in need of explication. A section of 9 wisdom sayings in the present volume contains gharīb words.

calf-shaped idol worshipped by the Israelites under the direction of the Samaritan (Ar. Sāmirī), while Moses was on the mountain communing with God.

place in northern Syria where ʿAlī reportedly wrote a testament for his son Ḥasan on the way back from Ṣiffīn. Ḥāḍirīn does not appear to be mentioned anywhere in the sources; perhaps it is a mistranscription for some form of ḥāḍir, meaning urban space or town. (See further: Ḥ 16:52.)

often translated as Traditions, these are reports of Muḥammad’s words, deeds, and gestures. The hadith hold a special position of authority and guidance for Muslims, complementing the Qurʾan.

town near Bahrain proverbial for its dates. (See further: Ḥ 15:188; B 819; F 372.)

pilgrimage to the Kaʿbah in Mecca mandated once in a lifetime for every Muslim, combining rituals performed by Abraham and Muḥammad. The hajj is performed in the month named for it, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, the final month in the Islamic lunar calendar.

(d. 95/714), Umayyad governor of Iraq famed for his eloquence and notorious for his harsh rule.

(d. 35/656), early Muslim, contemporary of Muḥammad, known for his piety and valor. Ḥakīm was killed combating the forces of Ṭalḥah and Zubayr, who were attempting to remove ʿAlī’s governor in Basra in the lead-up to the Battle of the Camel. (See further: Ḥ 9:110.)

(d. late 6th c. AD), pre-Islamic warrior from the clan of Fazārah of the Dhubyān tribe, who was killed in the Battle of Dāḥis, a decades-long conflict between the tribes of Dhubyān and ʿAbs, during the latter half of the 6th century AD. (See further: F 374; R 3:82; B 824.)

(fl. 6th c. AD), pre-Islamic warrior from the clan of Saʿd al-ʿAshīrah of the Madhḥij tribe.

(d. ca. 36/656), devout associate of ʿAlī who reportedly passed away upon hearing ʿAlī’s oration describing the truly pious, named after him as The Oration to Hammām (§ 1.191). Some commentators give his full name as Hammām ibn Shurayḥ ibn Yazīd, while others identify him as Hammām ibn ʿUbādah ibn Khuthaym. (See further: Ḥ 10:134; B 599.)

(d. 3/624), known as King of Martyrs and God’s Lion, paternal uncle of Muḥammad and ʿAlī, who fought valiantly at the Battle of Badr and killed several Meccan warriors in single combat. He was slain by treachery the following year at the Battle of Uḥud by a man who was incited by Muʿāwiyah’s mother, Hind. Muḥammad grieved deeply for Ḥamzah and recited the funeral prayer for him 70 times, placing Ḥamzah’s bier in front of the bier of each martyr as he prayed for them one by one.

(d. 2/624), Muʿāwiyah’s brother from the Umayyah clan of Quraysh, killed by ʿAlī in the fighting against Muḥammad at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 792; R 3:31; F 369.)

(d. after 37/657), chieftain of the clan of Shibām from the Yemeni tribe of Hamdān, who settled in Kufa. Ḥarb was a follower of ʿAlī and fought with him at Ṣiffīn.

(d. ca. 607 AD), Muʿāwiyah’s grandfather, from the clan of Umayyah of Quraysh, father of Abu Sufyān and father-in-law of Abū Lahab, both fierce enemies of Muḥammad. Ḥarb was one of the leading chieftains of Mecca in his day.

(d. 65/685), resident of Kufa and a learned man, staunch supporter of ʿAlī who participated in his battles. Ḥārith belonged to the Ḥūth clan of the Hamdān tribe of Yemen, and his full name is al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Kaʿb al-Hamdānī. A famous set of verses addressing him by name is attributed to ʿAlī. He appears in several reports in the present volume. (See further: Ḥ 17:42–43.)

(d. after 36/656), a man who challenged ʿAlī after the Battle of the Camel over the rightfulness of fighting ʿĀʾishah, Ṭalḥah, and Zubayr. Nothing else is found in the sources about Ḥārith, except discussions regarding the spelling of his father’s name, an additional indication that he was not well known.

see Nābighah

twelve thousand men who gathered in Ḥarūrāʾ near Kufa in 37/657 to protest ʿAlī’s decision to accept arbitration in his dispute with Muʿāwiyah over the caliphate. The Ḥarūriyyah are considered the first Kharijites. (See further: B 958.).

(d. 49/669), eldest son of ʿAlī and Fāṭimah, grandson of Muḥammad, and Shiʿa Imam after his father. The Prophet said, ⟨Ḥasan and Ḥusayn are the leaders of the youth of paradise.⟩ After ʿAlī’s death in 40/661, Ḥasan received the pledge of the caliphate in Kufa. He abdicated six months later and returned to Medina, where he was reportedly poisoned on Muʿāwiyah’s orders ten years later. (See further: Ḥ 16:9–52.)

Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s clan within Quraysh, named after their great-grandfather, Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf.

(d. ca. 497 AD), Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s paternal great-grandfather and custodian of the sanctuary in Mecca. Hāshim used to travel to Syria to trade and he married and set up a second home in Gaza. He died and is buried there in a shrine within the mosque complex named for him.

(d. 37/656), tribal chieftain of Kufa, nephew of Muḥammad’s Companion Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and one of ʿAlī’s staunch supporters. Hāshim was killed at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 6:55–56.)

(d. 38/658), ʿAlī’s governor in Anbar, who was killed by a cavalry troop led by Muʿāwiyah’s commander, Sufyān ibn ʿAwf al-Ghāmidī. (See further: R 1:214–215; B 215–216; Ḥ 2:75–76, 85–90.)

(d. ca. 40/659 or 50/669 or 54/673), of the Khazraj tribe of Medina, the best-known of several poets associated with the rise of Islam. Ḥassān was among the handful of prominent Companions who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī.

(fl. second half of 6th century AD), pre-Islamic poet of the tribe of Ṭayy, proverbial for his generosity.

north Arabian tribal federation, including the tribes of Thaqīf and Saʿd ibn Bakr, who fought the Muslims at the Battle of Ḥunayn in 8/630.

western part of the Arabian Peninsula, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. The province runs along the Red Sea coast and is bordered to the east by the Sarāt Mountains.

Muḥammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD. The Islamic calendar begins from this year, which is considered the first “Hijri” year.

wisdom, or wisdom saying, or aphorism.

mountain located northeast of Mecca, where Muḥammad is said to have spent a month every year immersed in God’s worship. It is here that he is said to have received his first Qurʾanic revelation.

(r. 105–125/724–743), Umayyad caliph.

(d. 206/821), famous Kufan genealogist and scholar, whose grandfather Sāʾib fought with ʿAlī in the Battles of the Camel and Ṣiffīn. Ibn al-Kalbī is also the compiler of a lost book titled Khuṭab ʿAlī (Orations of ʿAlī). (See further: Ḥ 18:66.)

town in northern Iraq on the Euphrates River toward Syria, site of a raid by Muʿāwiyah’s commander, Sufyān ibn ʿAwf al-Ghāmidī, in 39/659. (See further F 392; R:219.)

see Kaʿbah

village just outside Mecca, site of a peace treaty concluded in 6/628 between Muḥammad and the Quraysh.

(d. 52/672), Kufan chieftain of the Kindah tribe of Yemen, staunch supporter of ʿAlī who fought with him at the Battle of the Camel and at Ṣiffīn. During Muʿāwiyah’s caliphate, Ḥujr challenged the Umayyads’ cursing of ʿAlī, and he, along with several other Shiʿis, was tortured and beheaded by Muʿāwiyah’s governor Ziyād.

ancient town situated near the entrance to the Paytak pass through the Zagros range, identified with the present-day village of Sar-i Pul, 33 kilometers east of Qaṣr-i Shīrīn, in the Kermanshah province of Iran. Ḥulwān was a town of note in early Islamic times, and a garrison was stationed there during ʿAlī’s caliphate.

site of the Battle of Ḥunayn, fought between the Muslims and the Hawāzin tribal confederation in 8/630, following the conquest of Mecca, which ended in a decisive victory for the Muslims. Ḥunayn is a deep valley situated a day’s journey from Mecca on the road to Ṭāʾif.

Kharijite leader who fled from Iraq to Ramhormoz, against whom ʿAlī sent a battalion under Maʿqil ibn Qays in 38/658. (See further: F 369–370.)

(d. 61/680), second son of ʿAlī and Fāṭimah, grandson of Muḥammad, and Shiʿa Imam after his older brother, Ḥasan. Muḥammad said, ⟨Ḥasan and Ḥusayn are the leaders of the youth of paradise.⟩ Ḥusayn was killed by the Umayyads with his family and a handful of supporters at Karbala and is famous in Shiʿi lore as King of Martyrs (sayyid al-shuhadāʾ).

(d. ca. 100/718), notable and poet of Basra, among the leading members of the second generation of Muslims, a follower of ʿAlī, who carried the banner of Rabīʿah at Ṣiffīn. Later one of the associates of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.

(Eng. Lucifer), archdevil condemned in the Qurʾan. Originally a jinni or angel, he refused to bow down before Adam when God commanded him and was expelled from heaven for his disobedience. He vowed to lead the sons of Adam astray in every age.

see ʿAbdallāh ibn al-ʿAbbās

(d. ca. 656/1258), Sunni-Muʿtazilī theologian, “tafḍīlī” (one who gave precedence to ʿAlī over the three earlier Sunni caliphs), and a poet, historian, and literary theorist, best known for his twenty-volume commentary on Nahj al-Balāghah. An official in the Abbasid state, he held various administrative posts in the capital, Baghdad, just before the Mongol sack.

see ʿUbaydallāh ibn Abī Rāfiʿ

(d. 231/846), prominent philologist of the Kufan school.

(d. 565/1170), early Sunni commentator of Nahj al-Balāghah from Khurasan, who relied on the lost, possibly the first, Nahj al-Balāghah commentary, by Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Wabrī (fl. early 6th/12th c.), from Khwārazm. Ibn Funduq is the author of more than 70 works in Arabic and Persian on history and an encyclopedic range of subjects.

see ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Ḥaḍramī

see Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib

see ʿUthmān ibn Ḥunayf al-Anṣārī

(d. after 44/664), whose given name was ʿAbdallāh ibn Awfah al-Yashkurī, a Kharijite leader who fought against ʿAlī at Nahrawān and escaped. He visited Muʿāwiyah in 44/664.

(d. 37/657), early convert to Islam from the Medinan tribe of Aws and one of the Allies who fought for Muḥammad in the earliest battles of Badr and Uḥud. Ibn al-Tayyihān was killed fighting for ʿAlī at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 10:107–108; B 590–591.)

see ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd

(d. 40/661), of the Kindah tribe of Yemen, the Kharijite who assassinated ʿAlī. He was executed by ʿAlī’s son and successor, Ḥasan.

(d. 374/985), famous Aleppan preacher who memorized a large number of ʿAlī’s orations and drew on them for his own.

(d. 244/858), scholar of Arabic lexicography, poetry, and grammar, author of about twenty books.

see ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar

see ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr

Eid of Sacrifice, major feast day following the hajj, on 10th Dhū al-Ḥijjah.

Eid of Breaking-the-Fast, major feast day following the fasting month of Ramaḍān, on 1st Shawwāl.

(d. 13/634 or 15/636), from the Makhzūm clan, son of Muḥammad’s fierce enemy and a leader of the Quraysh in their battles against Muḥammad. ʿIkrimah fled to Yemen near the time of the Muslim conquest of Mecca in 10/632 but was later pardoned. Abū Bakr appointed him to command Muslim expeditions in Yemen and Syria; he was likely killed fighting the Byzantines in the Battle of Ajnādayn in Palestine in 13/634. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

lit. leader, refers either to the supreme leader of the Muslim community or to an exemplary scholar or prayer-leader. In Shia doctrine, the term denotes the Prophet Muḥammad, his legatee, ʿAlī, and their descendants, one in each age, who inherit their role of spiritual and temporal leadership, who are divinely guided and sole legitimate leaders of the Muslim community. The concept is rendered as Imamate (Ar. imāmah).

(d. 52/672), converted to Islam in 7/628 and settled in Basra soon after the conquest of Iraq. He was among the handful of early Muslims who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī, and he actively attempted to dissuade the Iraqis from supporting ʿAlī. ʿImrān fell ill soon thereafter and lived with chronic illness for nearly two decades until his death. (See further: Ḥ 17:132.)

(d. ca. 550 AD), ranked by medieval critics—and by ʿAlī—as the best pre-Islamic poet, one of the composers of the celebrated Hanging Odes. Princely descendant of the Kindah, Imruʾ al-Qays is often called the Wandering King.

important province in the early Islamic empire, conquered 14–17/635–638. Its major cities in ʿAlī’s reign were Basra and Kufa, the seat of his caliphate.

a prophet in Islam, son of the Prophet Abraham and ancestor of the Jews.

a prophet in Islam, son of the Prophet Abraham, and ancestor of the Arabs. Muḥammad and ʿAlī reportedly descend from his line.

(d. 240/854), Baghdadi Muʿtazilī who lived to a great age, and “tafḍīlī” Sunni, who maintained ʿAlī’s superiority to all other Companions of Muḥammad. Among Iskāfī’s lost works is Kitāb al-Maqāmāt fī tafḍīl ʿAlī (Book of exhortations, on ʿAlī’s superiority). (See further: Ḥ 17:132–133; B 913.)

town in the Fars district of Iran, an hour’s journey north of the ancient Achaemenid capital Persepolis, religious center of the Sasanian kingdom. The Muslims conquered it in 23/643 and it remained a fairly important place during the early centuries of Islam.

(d. ca. 78/697), early Companion and one of the Allies, resident of Medina from the tribe of Khazraj. He pledged allegiance to Muḥammad at ʿAqabah before the Emigration and remained a staunch supporter of ʿAlī, fighting in all his battles. He died in Madāʾin, near present-day Baghdad, in his nineties. Jābir was a prolific narrator of Muḥammad’s hadith and ʿAlī’s words.

(d. after 40/661), ʿAlī’s nephew, son of his sister Umm Hānī, a brave warrior and a learned man. Jaʿdah was close to ʿAlī and served as his governor in Khurasan. (See further: Ḥ 10:77–78; B 585; Ḥ 13:130; B 679.)

(d. 8/629), ʿAlī’s older brother, commander of Muḥammad’s forces at the Battle of Muʾtah, killed with his arms cut off in the battle. Muḥammad bestowed on him the epithets Ṭayyār, “He-Who-Soars-in-Paradise,” and Dhū al-Janāḥayn, “He-of-the-Two-Wings.” He is buried in Muʾtah, in the south of present-day Jordan.

(d. 148/765), great-grandson of the Prophet’s grandson Ḥusayn, recognized by the Ismaʿili and Twelver Shiʿa as the Imam succeeding his father, Muḥammad al-Bāqir. He spent most of his life in Medina and died there. Known as al-Ṣādiq, The Truthful, he, like his father, is the source of many oral reports in Shiʿi tradition. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq is also reported to be the teacher of two eponymous founders of Sunni legal schools, Abū Ḥanīfah and Mālik.

(d. 255/868), prolific author who wrote some 240 books and essays on diverse topics, of which 75 survive whole or in part. Among his most famous full-length books is the 4-volume al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn (Eloquence and exposition), mentioned by Raḍī. He cites and praises ʿAlī’s words frequently in his books, and a compilation of ʿAlī’s sayings titled Miʾat kalimah (One Hundred Proverbs) is also attributed to him.

(d. after 55/675), of the Bajīlah tribe, converted to Islam shortly before Muḥammad’s death and settled in Kufa, later becoming ʿUthmān’s governor in Hamadhān. Dismissed by ʿAlī, he came to Kufa and pledged allegiance, then served as ʿAlī’s emissary to Muʿāwiyah in the lead-up to Ṣiffīn and later as his governor in Hamadhān. According to the sources Jarīr remained secretly pro-Umayyad. (See further: Ḥ 3:70–74.)

(d. before 67/686), from the tribe of Tamīm, was a Companion of the Prophet and staunch supporter of ʿAlī. He died in Basra.

(d. 21/642), chieftain of ʿAbd al-Qays who came with a delegation from his tribe to Muḥammad in Medina ca. 9/630 and converted to Islam. Jārūd dissuaded the ʿAbd al-Qays from apostatizing after Muḥammad’s death. He was killed fighting with the Muslims during their conquest of Persia. (See further: Ḥ 18:55–57.)

a prophet in Islam. In the Qurʾan, he is called the Son of Mary, the Messiah (masīḥ), the Word (kalimah), and the Spirit (rūḥ).

righteous struggle against the forces of evil. Jihad can refer equally to battle with outside enemies or combat with one’s own base instincts.

category of beings created from fire, non-corporeal spirits, believed to possess powers for evil and good.

see Nahrawān

clan of the Quraysh.

(d. ca. 570 AD), pre-Islamic warrior and poet cited as a source of proverbial verses. Jumayḥ is sometimes said to be the sobriquet of Munqidh ibn al-Ṭammāḥ al-Asadī.

cuboid in Mecca, the holiest sanctuary of Islam, reportedly built by the Prophet Abraham, also called The House of God (Bayt Allāh). Muslim worshippers throughout the world face the Kaʿbah in their daily prayer, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims circumambulate it every year during the hajj and ʿumrah pilgrimages.

Arabian lineage group of the Quḍāʿah tribal federation. Predominantly camel-breeding pastoralists, the Kalb comprised powerful clans in the deserts between Syria and Iraq in pre-Islamic times and later were allies of the Umayyads.

(d. 37/63), one of the earliest converts to Islam and an eminent Companion of Muḥammad. As a freed slave of Nabataean origin, he suffered cruel torture at the hands of the Quraysh in Mecca because of his conversion. A strong supporter of ʿAlī, he died in Kufa soon after ʿAlī left for Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 18:171–172; B 947.)

(d. 619 AD), Muḥammad’s first wife, the first Muslim, mother of all but one (Ibrāhīm, son of Māriyah the Copt) of Muḥammad’s children: daughters Fāṭimah, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, and Umm Kulthūm, and two sons, Qāsim and ʿAbdallāh, both of whom died in infancy.

(d. 21/642), from the Makhzūm clan of Meccan Quraysh, lauded by Sunnis for his prominent role as military commander in the conquests of Iraq and Syria and condemned by the Shiʿis for his antagonism toward ʿAlī.

strongly militarist group of Muslims who seceded from ʿAlī’s following subsequent to the post-Ṣiffīn arbitration. With the anti-ʿAlī dictum, ⟨No rule save God’s!⟩ (lā ḥukma illā li-llāh), they killed any who disagreed. ʿAlī fought and defeated them at the Battle of Nahrawān in 38/658. Most Kharijite factions eventually died out; they survive today as the milder Ibāḍī denomination in Oman and North Africa. (See further: Ḥ 4:132–278.)

oasis 150 kilometers north of Medina, famous for its abundance of date palms, with a large Jewish population in pre-Islamic times. Khaybar was the site of a major battle between Muḥammad and the Jews in 7/628. ʿAlī played a major role in the Muslim victory when he slew the Jewish champion Marḥab in single combat.

(d. 38/658), chieftain of the Nājiyah tribe, which had converted to Islam and who, under his leadership, deserted from ʿAlī’s army after the post-Ṣiffīn arbitration and reverted to Christianity. ʿAlī sent troops under Maʿqil ibn Qays al-Riyāḥī to fight them, and Khirrīt was killed in the ensuing battle. (See further: Ḥ 3:120–151.)

region comprising present-day northeastern Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia. In Sasanian times, Khurasan was one of the four great provincial governorates. The Muslims conquered it ca. 30/651, and it remained one of the richest provinces of the early Islamic period.

Persian merchant clan, which ʿAlī encountered in Anbar, in northern Iraq, in 36/656, on the march toward the Battle of Ṣiffīn.

official discourse serving various religious, political, legislative, military, and other purposes, and containing diverse themes of piety, policy, exhortation to battle, and law. In modern usage, the term almost exclusively denotes the ritual Friday sermon.

(d. 37/657), famous as Dhū al-Shahādatayn, The Twice-Martyred, from Muḥammad’s hadith stating that his martyrdom had a twofold worth. Dhū al-Shahādatayn was an early convert to Islam from the Medinan tribe of Aws and one of the Allies who fought for Muḥammad at Badr and Uḥud. He was killed fighting for ʿAlī at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 10:107–108; B 591; n. 3 of R 2:192.)

province in the southwest of present-day Iran, adjacent to the province of Fars, conquered by the Muslims in ca. 17/638.

letter or book. The Book (Ar. Kitāb) is the Qurʾan.

garrison city founded in 17/638, during the Muslim conquests along the Euphrates, on the alluvial plains of Iraq. The city served as ʿAlī’s capital and remained a center for Shiʿi Islam for centuries afterward. Today it is a suburb of Najaf, the city that houses ʿAlī’s shrine, and a place of pilgrimage.

(d. after 61/680), son of Shihāb ibn al-Majnūn, a Basran (also identified as Kufan, perhaps having moved there during ʿAlī’s caliphate) who is said to have been an associate of ʿAlī, his sons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn, and his grandson ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn.

(d. 82/701), close companion of ʿAlī who fought at Ṣiffīn and served as governor of Hīt, a frontier town in the north of Iraq. He narrated ʿAlī’s words and the famous Kumayl’s Prayer is one he is said to have learned from ʿAlī. Kumayl, alongside other staunch and vocal supporters of ʿAlī, was executed by the Umayyad governor Ḥajjāj. (See further: Ḥ 17:149–150.)

(d. ca. 61/681), ʿAlī’s wife whom he married during the early part of his caliphate in Basra. She bore him three sons: two died fighting for Ḥusayn in Karbala. In some reports, Laylā also accompanied Ḥusayn to Karbala. She died soon thereafter in Medina. (See further: F 271–272.)

see Iblīs

lit. The Cities, metropolis of several adjacent cities on the Tigris River, 32 kilometers southeast of Abbasid Baghdad; one of them, Ctesiphon, was the Sasanian capital. At the time of the Muslim conquest in 16/637, Ctesiphon was the residence of the Jewish Exilarch and the Nestorian Catholicos. It was home to a population of around 130,000, with diverse faiths including Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, and varied ethnicities, including Aramaeans, Greeks, Persians, and Syrians.

large tribal group in the southern Arabian Peninsula and Yemen. Madhḥij played an important role in the early Muslim conquests, especially of Egypt. They fought with ʿAlī at Ṣiffīn, under the leadership of Mālik al-Ashtar.

lit. The Rightly Guided One, the Messiah who will come at the end of time and institute an era of justice and peace. The Mahdī is a descendant of Muḥammad.

prominent clan of Quraysh. (See further: B 964.)

angel who guards the gates of hell.

(d. ca. 37/658), tribal chieftain of the Madhḥij tribe of Kufa, one of the foremost warriors of the early Muslim conquests and one of ʿAlī’s strongest supporters. ʿAlī sent Ashtar as governor to Egypt, where he was reportedly poisoned at Muʿāwiyah’s behest. Earlier, he had been among the group who called for ʿUthmān’s resignation. (See further: Ḥ 15:98–102; B 888.)

(r. 198–218/813–833), Abbasid caliph.

(d. 43/663), chieftain of the Tamīm tribe of Kufa, loyal supporter of ʿAlī. Maʿqil commanded battalions at the Battle of the Camel and Ṣiffīn and led troops against renegade groups during ʿAlī’s caliphate. Later, he was killed fighting the Kharijites. (See further: Ḥ 3:120–151, 15:92; B 794; F 369–370.)

site of a great dam and capital of the Sabaean realm in southwest Arabia, ruled in classical antiquity by the legendary Bilqīs, Queen of Sheba (Sabaʾ, or Sabā), whose story is recounted together with the story of Solomon in the Qurʾan (Q Naml 27:20–44). The Qurʾan also speaks of a devastating flood that submerged the gardens of Sheba and brought drought (Q Sabaʾ 34:15–17). Present-day Maʾrib is the main town of the district of the same name, 135 kilometers east of Sanaa.

see faith-leavers

(r. 64–65/684–685), first caliph of the Marwānid branch of the Umayyads, earlier exiled along with his father from Medina by Muḥammad. Marwān returned to become a key supporter of his cousin ʿUthmān. He fought against ʿAlī in the Battle of the Camel but reluctantly pledged allegiance to him when defeated. (See further: Ḥ 6:148–165.)

holy woman in Islam, mother of the Prophet Jesus. An entire chapter of the Qurʾan is named for her, which relates there and elsewhere the story of her upbringing by Zachariah, her receiving food directly from God, her miraculous conception and birth of Jesus.

(fl. 2nd/8th c.), one of the associates of the Shiʿi Imams Muḥammad al-Bāqir and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, who narrated their words. Masʿadah is the author of a lost book titled Khuṭab Amīr al-Muʾminīn (Orations of the Commander of the Faithful).

an excellent type of blade, so called in relation to Mashārif, a town in Yemen, or to certain towns called the Mashārif of Syria.

(d. 50/670), of the Bakr tribe, ʿAlī’s governor in Ardashīr-khurrah. Maṣqalah is noted for purchasing the freedom of the Nājiyah war captives from ʿAlī’s commander Maʿqil ibn Qays, then fleeing to Muʿāwiyah without paying. After ʿAlī’s death, he remained in Muʿāwiyah’s service and participated in the killing of ʿAlī’s supporter Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī. Muʿāwiyah sent Maṣqalah to conquer Ṭabaristān, where he was killed. (See further: Ḥ 3:120–151.)

pre-Islamic game of chance that involved drawing arrows to determine the division of a slaughtered camel’s meat; the man who drew the longest arrow won the choicest part. The Qurʾan condemns the practice as Satan’s handiwork (Q Baqarah 2:219; Māʾidah 5:90–91.)

holiest city of Islam, birthplace of Muḥammad and ʿAlī, home to the Kaʿbah and locus of worship for Muslims worldwide. In pre-Islamic times, Mecca was the abode of the Quraysh tribe and a site of pilgrimage. Muḥammad spent his youth and the first thirteen years of his mission there. Mecca is also known as Umm al-Qurā (Mother of all Cities), Baṭḥāʾ (The Flatland), and Bakkah.

second holiest city of Islam, Muḥammad’s home for his final ten years, after he had migrated from Mecca, and capital of the Islamic polity during the first three caliphates. It is located 160 kilometers from the Red Sea and 350 kilometers north of Mecca, in the Ḥijāz province of present-day Saudi Arabia. Medina is short for Madīnat al-Nabī, City of the Prophet. It is also known as Ṭaybah (The Pure City) and Dār al-Hijrah (Home of Migration). In pre-Islamic times, it was a flourishing and fertile settlement named Yathrib, populated by the pagan tribes of Aws and Khazraj, and the Jewish tribes of Naḍīr, Qaynuqāʿ, and Qurayẓah, who collectively invited Muḥammad to settle there as its chief.

an epithet of Jesus, a prophet in Islam.

an archangel of Islamic tradition, mentioned in the Qurʾan and paired with Gabriel.

see Hijrah

see Michael.

(d. 65/684), embraced Islam, along with his tribal delegation, at Muḥammad’s hands. Afterward, he fought at the Battle of Qādisiyyah in Iraq and settled in Kufa. Mikhnaf was a strong supporter of ʿAlī. He commanded the Azdī battalion in ʿAlī’s battles and served as ʿAlī’s governor in Isfahan. Later, after ʿAlī’s son Ḥusayn was martyred at Karbala, Mikhnaf joined the Tawwābūn (Penitents), who sought revenge for Ḥusayn’s death, and was killed in the ensuing Battle of ʿAyn al-Wardah. Mikhnaf’s grandson, the important historian Abū Mikhnaf Lūṭ ibn Yaḥyā (d. 157/774), relates much of his material on ʿAlī and Ḥusayn from his grandfather.

(d. 33/653), also known as al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad, staunch supporter of ʿAlī, Companion of Muḥammad, and one of the first Muslims. Earlier, after an altercation in his homeland of Kindah, in Yemen, Miqdād fled to Mecca, where he was adopted by al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth al-Zuhrī. He fought in all Muḥammad’s battles and was given command in several. Later, he took part in the Muslim conquest of Syria.

prophet in Islam

fortress city in north Iraq, important in early Islamic times, located on the Tigris River, opposite ancient Nineveh. After the Muslim conquest of Nineveh in 20/641, Mosul was set up nearby as a military camp city.

(d. 60/680), major enemy of ʿAlī and the first Umayyad caliph. Muʿāwiyah was ʿUthmān’s cousin and had served as governor of Syria under him and earlier under ʿUmar. He refused to accept ʿAlī as caliph and fought him, with the support of the people of Syria, at the Battle of Ṣiffīn, in 37/657. After ʿAlī’s death in 40/661, ʿAlī’s son Ḥasan concluded a peace agreement and Muʿāwiyah became caliph. He ruled from Damascus for 20 years. (See further: Ḥ 6:334–340.)

one of the two largest tribal federations in ancient north Arabia (the other is Rabīʿah). The federation is named for Muḍar ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān, eponymous ancestor of Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s tribe of Quraysh. (See further: B 772; Ḥ 13:198.)

(d. ca. 50/670), Meccan notorious for the laxness of his faith and for his political cunning. Mughīrah served as governor of Kufa under ʿUmar, and later again under Muʿāwiyah, at which time he openly cursed ʿAlī on the pulpit. He had been among those who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī after ʿUthmān’s death. (See further: Ḥ 20:8–10.)

(d. 35/656), poet from the Thaqīf tribe, close associate of ʿUthmān (he was killed alongside him), and keen enemy of ʿAlī. Mughīrah’s brother Abū al-Ḥakam had been among the Meccans ʿAlī had slain at the Battle of Uḥud. Mughīrah’s father, Akhnas, Muḥammad’s fierce enemy, had accepted Islam reluctantly following the conquest of Mecca; presumably, Mughīrah also converted then. (See further: Ḥ 8:301–303.)

(d. ca. 114/732), grandson of the Prophet’s grandson Ḥusayn, recognized by the Ismaʿili and Twelver Shiʿa as the Imam after his father, Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. He was a child when he accompanied his father and grandfather to Karbala. Known as al-Bāqir or Bāqir al-ʿilm, “the one who possesses full knowledge,” he is the source of many oral reports in Shiʿi tradition. He spent his life in Medina and died there.

(d. 11/632), Prophet of Islam and Messenger of God (Rasūl Allāh).

(d. 38/658), ʿAlī’s ward and staunch supporter. His father, the first caliph, Abū Bakr, died when he was a child, and ʿAlī, who married his widowed mother, Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, raised him. Muḥammad fought alongside ʿAlī at the Battle of the Camel, against his sister ʿĀʾishah. Serving for a short time as ʿAlī’s governor in Egypt, he was tortured and killed by Muʿāwiyah’s commander ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ when ʿAmr captured Egypt after the arbitration. (See further: Ḥ 6:53–54, 16:142–143; B 861; R 1:295.)

(d. 81/700), also known as Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah and Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, ʿAlī’s son, Ḥasan’s and Ḥusayn’s half-brother, who was active in his father’s service, especially at Ṣiffīn. In Umayyad times, the Kufan chieftain al-Mukhtār al-Thaqafī led a major rebellion in Iraq in Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah’s name.

(d. 101/719), son of the Umayyad caliph Marwān I and half-brother of the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, Muḥammad served as governor of Armenia under ʿAbd al-Malik and as the commander of military expeditions.

(d. 43/663 or 45/666), of the Aws tribe of Medina, an early convert to Islam who later participated in the conquest of Egypt. He was among a handful of Companions who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī and sat out his battles.

(d. 61/681), recalcitrant Kufan chieftain who initially fought alongside ʿAlī at the Battle of the Camel, but later, when appointed governor of Fars, stole from the treasury and was dismissed. In 61/681, two decades after ʿAlī’s death, when al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī sent a messenger to Mundhir asking for help, he turned the messenger over to the Umayyad governor Ibn Ziyād for execution. As a reward, Ibn Ziyād appointed Mundhir governor of Sind, where he died almost immediately. (See further: Ḥ 17:55–57.)

a town two hours south of Karak, in present-day Jordan, site of a battle between the Muslims and the Byzantines in 8/629, in which three Muslim commanders were killed, one following the other, including ʿAlī’s brother Jaʿfar al-Ṭayyār. Three years later, the Muslims returned, under the command of Usāmah ibn Zayd, to defeat the Byzantines.

rationalist school of Islamic theology, which used the dialectics of Greek philosophy. Its subscribers called themselves “people of unity and justice” (ahl al-tawḥīd wa-l-ʿadl), meaning that they were strictly non-anthropomorphic proponents of God’s oneness and advocates for his justice and thus of human free will.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), “The Harlot,” lit. “the woman who shows herself,” infamous appellation of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ’s mother in pre-Islamic times. Her given name is not mentioned in the sources. (See further: Ḥ 6:283; B 335; M 1:415.)

town in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, 80 kilometers south of the city of Hamadhān, site of a battle in 21/642 between the Muslims and the Persian Sasanians, in which the Muslims won a decisive victory.

also called Jisr al-Nahrawān, a town in the lower Diyālā region east of the Tigris River in Iraq, location of a battle between ʿAlī and the Kharijite defectors from his Ṣiffīn army under ʿAbdallāh ibn Wahb, on 9 Safar 38/17 July 658. Persuaded by ʿAlī’s speech, over a thousand Kharijite fighters left without fighting. Of the 2,800 men remaining, a handful fled during the battle, the 400 wounded were pardoned by ʿAlī, and the rest were killed. (See further: Ḥ 2:265–283; B 245–246.)

Christian tribe in pre-Islamic times of contested origins (Nājiyah is their eponymous mother), many of whom had converted to Islam. The Nājiyah tribe served in ʿAlī’s army in the Battle of Ṣiffīn, then deserted under the leadership of al-Khirrīt ibn Rāshid and reverted to Christianity. (See further: Ḥ 3:120–151.)

see pledge-breakers

classical Nasibis or Nisibis or Nesbin, Nusaybin in modern Turkey, where it is now located, earlier in northern Iraq. An ancient, fortified, frontier city on the Hirmās River, conquered by the Muslims in 18/639.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), member of the Bikāl clan of the Ḥimyar tribe of Yemen, an associate of ʿAlī. (See further: B 585; Ḥ 10:76–77, 18:265–266.)

Thursday-Friday 7–8 Ṣafar 37/27–28 July 658, the final, bloody night of the two-month Battle of Ṣiffīn, between the forces of ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah. (See further: B 289.)

notch at the end of an arrow into which the bowstring fits, fūq also indicates a broken nock.

town in Iraq near Kufa, on the road to Syria, where ʿAlī stopped enroute to Ṣiffīn. It is said to correspond to present-day Khān Ibn Nukhaylah, located between Karbala and Kufa.

(d. after 40/661), from the Zurayq clan of the Khazraj tribe, one of the leaders of Muḥammad’s Allies in Medina, and a poet. Outspoken in supporting ʿAlī’s right to the caliphate over Abū Bakr, Nuʿmān was also one of the thirty witnesses who testified to Muḥammad’s appointment of ʿAlī at Ghadīr Khumm, when ʿAlī called on them in Kufa. He participated in Ṣiffīn and served as ‘Alī’s governor in Bahrain. (See further: Ḥ 16:174; B 869.)

(d. 65/684), among the handful of Medinans who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī after ʿUthmān’s death and the only person from the Allies who became Muʿāwiyah’s staunch supporter. According to some reports, Nuʿmān brought ʿUthmān’s bloodstained shirt to Damascus, and Muʿāwiyah then exhibited it in the mosque. He fought with Muʿāwiyah against ʿAlī in the Battle of Ṣiffīn, and he undertook an expedition against ʿAyn al-Tamr on ʿAlī’s frontier in 39/659 but was forced to retreat. (Ḥ 1:301–306.)

formal profession of loyalty and obedience rendered, with an oath, to the Prophet and the Caliphs by each of their subjects.

title of the ancient rulers of Egypt in the Qurʾan, Pharaoh is condemned as an evil ruler who refused to obey God and his messenger, Moses.

see Fars

ruled by the Sasanian dynasty, defeated by the Muslims in the Battle of Qādisiyyah in Iraq (bet. 14–17/635–638) and the Battle of Nahāwand in Iran (21/642).

see hajj and ʿumrah

see oath of allegiance

appellation of those who fought ʿAlī at the Battle of the Camel. (See further: Ḥ 13:183–184; B 771–772; F 364–365.)

also called “people with a covenant,” members of revealed religions, to whom the early Islamic state provided protected status.

David’s book of hymns, to which reference is made in the Qurʾan.

small town south of present-day Najaf in Iraq, site of a major Muslim victory over the Sasanians in ca. 16/637, which opened Iraq and Persia to further conquest.

Roman fortress city near the junction of the Euphrates and Khābūr rivers at the empire’s eastern frontier, corresponding to the present-day village of Buṣayrah. Conquered by the Muslims in 18/638, Qarqīsiyā continued to be contested by competing Muslim states due to its strategic location between Syria and Iraq.

(fl. 3rd c. AD), proverbial counsellor to the pre-Islamic Iraqi Azdī king Jadhīmah ibn Mālik ibn Naṣr. Jadhīmah was killed by Zenobia (Ar. Zabbāʾ), Queen of Palmyra, whose father he had killed, and whom he had set out to wed against Qaṣīr’s advice.

see wrongdoers

(d. ca. 59/678), son of Muḥammad’s Companion Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah al-Anṣārī, Qays was ʿAlī’s first governor in Egypt and one of his commanders at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 10:112; B 591.)

direction of the Kaʿbah in Mecca, which all Muslims face in ritual prayer. People of the Qiblah refers to Muslims.

holy book of the Muslims, revealed by God to Muḥammad, also called The Book (Ar. Kitāb) and The Wise Remembrance (Ar. al-Dhikr al-ḥakīm).

Muḥammad’s tribe. They lived in Mecca and were initially his bitter enemies, fighting him in the Battles of Badr, Uḥud, and The Confederates. When Muḥammad conquered Mecca in 8/630, they reluctantly accepted Islam en masse.

(d. 56/676), cousin of Muḥammad and ʿAlī, brother of ʿAbdallāh ibn al-ʿAbbās, served as ʿAlī’s governor in charge of Mecca, Medina, and Ṭāʾif. (See further: Ḥ 16:140–141.)

early Muslim settlement in the foothills of the Ḥijāz mountains, 200 kilometers to the northeast of Medina, now an archaeological site marked by the cistern of Abū Salīm. In early Islamic times it lay on the main pilgrimage route from Kufa to Mecca.

(d. ca. 48/668), participated in the Muslim conquest of Khurasan and served as governor of Bahrain during ʿUmar’s caliphate, and of Khurasan during Muʿāwiyah’s. (See further: Ḥ 11:37.)

one of the two largest tribal federations in ancient north Arabia (the other is Muḍar), named for Rabīʿat al-Faras ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān, eponymous ancestor of the tribes of Bakr and Taghlib. Rabīʿah was divided among ʿAlī and his opponents during the Battle of the Camel and Ṣiffīn. (See further: B 772; Ḥ 13:198.)

(d. 406/1015) descendant of Muḥammad who lived in Abbasid Baghdad, distinguished scholar and poet, compiler of Nahj al-Balāghah.

town in the Khuzistan province of southwestern Iran, conquered by the Muslims in 17/638, reportedly the ancestral homeland of Salman al-Fārisī.

town in northwest Syria on the Euphrates, conquered by the Muslims in ca. 18/639. In 36/656, ʿAlī crossed the Euphrates at Raqqah on his way to Ṣiffīn. Located close by, the burials of ʿAlī’s followers remain venerated places of Shiʿi pilgrimage.

see gharīb

lit. well. The “people of Rass” (aṣḥāb al-Rass) are mentioned in the Qurʾan, alongside ʿĀd and Thamūd, as unbelieving peoples of ancient times, destroyed for their impiety (Q Furqān 25:38). (See further: Ḥ 10:94–95; B 589; R 2:191; F 303–304.)

(d. 573/1177), early Twelver Shiʿi commentator on Nahj al-Balāghah, a jurist, exegete, theologian, and hadith scholar, student of Ṭabrisī, author of around 60 books. He died in Qum and is buried there.

letter, treatise, or message.

(rendered into English as Sheba; fl. before 7th c. AD), proverbial pre-Islamic individual from Yemen. In the proverb, “They dispersed like the hands of Sabā,” Sabā’s hands are a metaphor for his sons. Warned by a sybil of the Maʾrib dam’s imminent rupture, they dispersed across Arabia. (See further: Ḥ 7:74–75; B 403; R 1:432.)

see Kaʿbah

(d. between 50/670 and 58/677), among the first Muslims, commander of the Arab armies during the conquest of Iraq, and member of the Shūrā Council that elected ʿUthmān. Saʿd was among the handful of prominent Companions who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī and sat out his battles.

plant growing in the arid wastes of Arabia, prized for camel pasturing, with a head of prickles that wound human feet.

(d. ca. 20/640), from the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, paternal aunt of Muḥammad and ʿAlī, and mother of al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām. Ṣafiyyah was one of the earliest converts to Islam and migrated with Muḥammad to Medina.

(d. ca. 41/661), one of the leaders of Quraysh who spearheaded the Battle of the Confederates against Muḥammad. His father, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, was also Muḥammad’s inveterate opponent. Ṣafwān converted to Islam after the Battle of Ḥunayn, in 8/630. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(d. 38/658), of the Medinan Aws tribe, was an early Companion and narrator of hadith. ʿAlī’s staunch supporter, Sahl reportedly debated with Abū Bakr about ʿAlī’s rightful succession to Muḥammad. During ʿAlī’s caliphate, he served as governor in Medina, Basra, and Fars, and he fought in the Battle of Ṣiffīn. He died in Kufa, soon after returning from Ṣiffīn.

(d. 59/678), from the Umayyad clan of Quraysh, ʿUthmān’s governor of Kufa 29–34/649–655, and later, Muʿāwiyah’s governor of Medina.

(d. ca. 70/689), participated in the battles of Yarmūk and Qādisiyyah during the Muslim conquests. A loyal follower of ʿAlī, Saʿīd served as his scribe, and as his governor in Yemen. Later imprisoned by the Umayyad governor Ziyād for denouncing the Umayyads’ cursing of ʿAlī, alongside ʿAlī’s supporter Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī. Saʿīd was released, while Ḥujr was executed.

(d. 249/863), author of Maghāzī (Expeditions), a recension of the Book of Expeditions composed by his father, Abū Ayyūb Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Umawī (d. 194/809). His father was a native of Kufa who settled in Baghdad and had studied with Ibn Isḥāq (d. ca. 151/768), author of one of the earliest Expeditions.

(d. 50 or 51/670–671), from Quraysh, cousin and brother-in-law of ʿUmar, and one of the earliest Muslims. Saʿīd was among the handful of prominent Medinans who refused to support ʿAlī during his caliphate.

clan of the ancient Yemeni tribe of Ṭayy (or Ṭayyiʾ) who migrated in the 2nd century AD to Syria, to what is known as Jabal Ṭayy (later Jabal Shammār).

ancient Arabian prophet sent to the tribe of Thamūd. The focus of his story is that God sent him with a camel mare as a divine sign; his tribe killed the camel mare, and God destroyed them in retribution.

(d. after 37/658), from the tribe of Salāmān ibn Ṭayy in Kufa, follower of ʿAlī, who was ill and unable to accompany him to Ṣiffīn.

(d. 35/655), prominent early Companion of Muḥammad who came from Persia. Muḥammad said, “Salmān is one of us, People of the House.” Salmān was also a close companion and staunch supporter of ʿAlī. Governor of Madāʾin in ʿUmar’s reign, he died and was buried there. (See further: Ḥ 19:34–39.)

estate in Medina belonging to the Sāʿidah clan, where, immediately after Muḥammad’s death, some of his Companions gathered and pledged allegiance to Abū Bakr as caliph. (See further: B 292–293.)

(d. ca. 56/676), poet, orator, and chieftain of his tribe of ʿAbd al-Qays, devoted supporter of ʿAlī who fought in all his battles and attempted to persuade the Kharijites to return to the fold in the lead-up to the Battle of Nahrawān. After ʿAlī’s death, at Muʿāwiyah’s court, Ṣaʿṣaʿah discoursed eloquently on ʿAlī’s merits. In some reports, Muʿāwiyah exiled him to Bahrain, where he died. In other reports, Ṣaʿṣaʿah paid homage to Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn when the latter returned from Karbala after Ḥusayn was killed.

lit. wide path to the watering hole, term indicating the Law laid down by each of God’s six major prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad.

see Raḍī.

(d. 2/624), chieftain of the ʿAbd Shams clan of the Meccan Quraysh, slain by Muḥammad’s uncle Ḥamzah in single combat at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

lit. followers, shortened from Shīʿat ʿAlī (followers of ʿAlī), Muslims who believe that Muḥammad appointed ʿAlī through divine revelation to lead the Muslim community after him as Imam, and, therefore, that ʿAlī was his rightful successor in both his temporal and spiritual roles. Over time, three major branches of the Shiʿa evolved: Twelver, Ismāʿīlī, and Zaydī.

clan of the large Yemeni tribe of Hamdan, most of whom fought for ʿAlī at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. The clan is unusually named after the mountain that is their ancestral homeland, Shibām Kawkabān, northwest of Sanaa, and not after an eponymous ancestor.

electoral council set up by ʿUmar to choose one of their members as the next caliph. The six members consisted of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, who was elected caliph by the council, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, who opposed the election, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, who presided, as well as al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydallāh.

(d. ca. 80/699), of Yemeni birth and Persian ethnicity, jurist, hadith scholar, and litterateur, served as judge in Kufa during the caliphates of ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, and Muʿāwiyah. (See further: Ḥ 14:28–29.)

(d. 78/697), ʿAlī’s loyal follower and one of his commanders at the Battle of Ṣiffīn, who lived to an old age. Shurayḥ challenged Muʿāwiyah’s execution of ʿAlī’s follower Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī, and was forced to flee to Sijistān, where he was killed. (See further: Ḥ 17:138.)

site of the major Battle of Ṣiffīn fought between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah in 37/657, which ended in arbitration. Ṣiffīn was then an abandoned Byzantine village near Raqqah, in north-central Syria, on the Euphrates River; it is identified in the present day with the village named Abū Hurayrah. The main extant source for the battle is Minqarī’s Battle of Ṣiffīn (Waqʿat Ṣiffīn).

signature or seal placed on a decree.

(fl. 10th c. BC), biblical king of Israel, son and successor of King David, revered alongside his father as a prophet in Islam. Solomon is frequently mentioned in the Qurʾan, particularly in connection with his knowledge of the language of the birds, and his command over the jinn and the winds.

(d. ca. 54/674), from the Ghāmid clan of the Azd Sarāt tribe of western Arabia, who fought in the Muslim conquests of Syria and became attached to the Umayyads. Sufyān served as Muʿāwiyah’s commander in his conflict with ʿAlī and led a notoriously brutal raid against Anbar. Later, he commanded a large Umayyad force against the Byzantines and was killed in the battle.

lit. the man from the Sufyān clan, whose harm is prophesied in § 1.136.3. The commentators state that it refers to the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik. (Ḥ 9:47; B 486.)

(d. 18/639), of the Umayyad clan of Quraysh, a leader in the Battle of the Confederates in 5/627 against the Muslims, an eloquent orator and one of Muḥammad’s fiercest enemies. Suhayl converted to Islam when Muḥammad conquered Mecca and later participated with the Muslims in the Battle of Yarmūk. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(d. 76/695), loyal follower of ʿAlī, who supported him before his caliphate, and who, during his caliphate, participated in all his battles. Later, Sulaym remained a follower of ʿAlī’s sons Ḥasan and Ḥusayn and of Ḥusayn’s son Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn. He is said to be the author of a compilation of ʿAlī’s sayings and sayings of the early Shiʿi Imams, known as Kitāb Sulaym (Sulaym’s Book).

(r. 96–99/715–717), Umayyad caliph.

(fl. 1st/7th c.), from the ʿAbd Shams clan of the Zayd Manāt tribe of Tamīm, slave, mother of the Umayyad governor Ziyād. Married to Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Azraqī, Sumayyah is characterized in the sources as promiscuous. Among the stories of Ziyād’s parentage, one story recounts that Muʿāwiyah’s father, Abū Sufyān, boasted that he, Abū Sufyān, had “placed Ziyād inside Sumayyah’s womb.”

refers to the accepted practice of the pious forbears, and when used without qualifiers, specifically to Muḥammad’s.

someone belonging to the denomination of Muslims who believe that Muḥammad died without appointing an heir, and who revere the first four leaders of the community—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī—as Rightly Guided Caliphs. The term Sunni emerged from the earlier political appellation, “people adhering to the sunnah and majority.”

one of the 114 chapters in the Qurʾan.

the Levant. Syria in early Islam included the present-day nation states of Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and southeastern Turkey. Then, too, the capital was Damascus.

refers, in the context of ʿAlī’s caliphate, to Muʿāwiyah and his supporters.

(d. 3/624), of the clan of ʿAbd al-Dār of the Quraysh tribe, part of the Meccan opposition against Muḥammad. Ṭalḥah was the Meccans’ standard-bearer during the Battle of Uḥud, where he was slain by Muḥammad’s uncle Ḥamzah, or by ʿAlī, and where his two brothers and four sons were also killed.

(d. 36/656), of the Taym clan of the Meccan Quraysh tribe, Muḥammad’s Companion who later took part in the Muslim conquest of Syria and Egypt and was a member of the Shūrā Council that elected ʿUthmān. Ṭalḥah was killed leading the fight against ʿAlī in the Battle of the Camel, outside Basra.

large tribe in central and eastern Arabia. Their pedigree is Tamīm ibn Murr ibn Udd ibn Ṭābikhah ibn Ilyās ibn Muḍar ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān. In the early Islamic period, both Basra and Kufa were extensions of Tamīm’s territories. Tamīmīs in Basra were further divided into the clans of Saʿd, Ḥanẓalah, and ʿAmr; the Saʿd sat out the Battle of the Camel, but they fought for ʿAlī at Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 15:126–136.)

see Medina

clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, whose pedigree is Taym ibn Murrah ibn Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy ibn Ghālib ibn Fihr. Abū Bakr and Ṭalḥah were from this clan.

(d. 291/904), leading scholar of the Kufan school of Arabic grammar, cited by Raḍī in Nahj al-Balāghah.

caravan stop in Najd, on the Kufa-to-Mecca pilgrimage route, in what is now the northeastern corner of Saudi Arabia toward the Iraqi border. Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī also stopped there en route to Karbala.

ancient Arabian tribe that disappeared before the rise of Islam. They are mentioned in the Qurʾan as an impious people who disobeyed the Prophet Ṣāliḥ, slaughtered God’s camel mare, and were destroyed by an exemplary divine punishment. Legend associates the cliff dwellings around the northern Ḥijāzī town of Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ with the Thamūd.

north Arabian tribe of the Hawāzin federation who controlled the walled town of Ṭāʾif in pre-Islamic times and were among Muḥammad’s staunchest enemies, until they converted to Islam after their defeat at the Battle of Ḥunayn. The Thaqīf were a major trading partner with Quraysh, and they intermarried extensively. Later the Umayyads appointed several of their governors from Thaqīf.

along with the Euphrates, one the two great rivers of Iraq. The Tigris flows south from the mountains of the Armenian highlands through the Syrian and Arabian deserts and empties into the Arabian/Persian Gulf.

refers in the present volume to the Mongols who attacked the Muslim heartlands in the 7th/13th century under Chingiz Khan and his grandson Hülegü Khan.

(d. 2/624), of the Hāshim clan of Quaysh, Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s cousin, one of the earliest converts to Islam, killed fighting for Muḥammad at the Battle of Badr.

(d. 58/677), of the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s cousin, and ʿAlī’s governor in Yemen. (See further: Ḥ 1:341–343.)

(d. after 40/661), whose father, Abū Rāfiʿ, was one of the first Muslims and Muḥammad’s freedman, was ʿAlī’s loyal follower, who participated in all his battles and served as his scribe in Kufa. (See further: B 1003; R 3:391.)

mountain 5 kilometers north of Medina, site of the second major battle between the Muslims and the Meccans, in 3/625, in which the Muslims suffered heavy losses and Muḥammad’s uncle Ḥamzah was killed.

(d. 83/702), Muḥammad’s stepson and ward, son of his wife Umm Salamah from her previous husband. ʿUmar served as ʿAlī’s governor in Bahrain in the lead-up to the Battle of Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 16:173–174; B 869.)

(r. 13–23/634–644), of the ʿAdī clan of Quraysh, prominent Companion of Muḥammad and father of his wife Ḥafṣah. ʿUmar was the second Sunni caliph of the Muslim community, during whose rule the Muslim polity underwent rapid expansion into Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran.

clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca and the first dynasty to rule the Islamic world, beginning with Muʿāwiyah, who became caliph following ʿAlī’s death in 40/661. From their seat in Damascus, the Umayyads ruled until 132/750, when they were overthrown by the Abbasids. The third Sunni caliph, ʿUthmān, was also from this clan.

(d. 2/624), ancestor of the Umayyad clan of Quraysh, a leader of the Meccan opposition against Muḥammad, killed at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(d. after 40/661), a learned woman from the Hāshim clan of Quraysh, ʿAlī’s sister and Muḥammad’s cousin, and close to both. Umm Hānī was one of the earliest Muslims, and although her husband Hubayrah was not, Muḥammad spent many nights in Mecca at their home. Muḥammad’s Ascension (Ar. Miʿrāj) to the heavens is reported to have taken place on one such night.

epithet used to describe Muḥammad in the Qurʾan (Q Aʿrāf 7:157), variously interpreted as: “Meccan,” an attributive adjective formed from Umm al-Qurā, one of the names of Mecca; or “unlettered”; or “of the community (ummah)”; or “affiliated to previous scriptural communities.”

(fl. 1st/7th c.), Muʿāwiyah’s paternal aunt, from the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe, married to Muḥammad’s paternal uncle and fierce foe, Abū Lahab. Umm Jamīl actively sought to torment Muḥammad while he lived in Mecca, and in the Surah that curses Abū Lahab, she is characterized as “The Woman-Who-Carries-Firewood-to-Hell” (Ar. ḥammālat al-ḥaṭab), (Q Masad 111:1–4). (See further: Ḥ 15:197; B 822; R 3:77; F 374; ʿA 681.)

see Mecca

the lesser pilgrimage to the Kaʿbah in Mecca, mandated, along with the hajj, once in a lifetime for every Muslim, combining rituals performed by Abraham and Muḥammad. Unlike the hajj, the ʿumrah may be performed at any time in the year.

(d. ca. 54/674), son of Muḥammad’s Abyssinian freedwoman Barakah Umm Ayman and Muḥammad’s adopted son Zayd ibn al-Ḥārithah, born in Mecca in the early years of Islam. In 11/632, Muḥammad put Usāmah in command of an expedition to fight the Byzantines at Muʾtah, but the group turned back just before Muḥammad died. Later, Usāmah was among the handful of prominent Companions who refused to pledge allegiance to ʿAlī and sat out his battles.

(d. 2/624), of the Quraysh tribe, a leader of the Meccan opposition against Muḥammad, killed at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(r. 23–35/644–656), of the Umayyad clan of Quraysh, third Sunni caliph of the Muslim community. ʿUthmān married two of Muḥammad’s daughters in succession, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthūm. Major Muslim conquests in Central Asia took place during his reign. Later, he was accused of nepotism and corruption and killed in Medina by a group of Muslims.

(d. after 40/661), of the Aws tribe of Medina, Companion of Muḥammad who served as ʿUmar’s tax collector in Iraq and ʿAlī’s first governor in Basra. After the Battle of the Camel, ʿAlī replaced Ibn Ḥunayf with ʿAbdallāh ibn al-ʿAbbās as governor of Basra, and Ibn Ḥunayf left with ʿAlī for Kufa, where he settled. (See further: Ḥ 16:205–206.)

(d. 3/624), of the Jumaḥ clan of Quraysh, one of Muḥammad’s earliest Companions, who took part in the first Muslim migration to Abyssinia, returned soon thereafter, then migrated with Muḥammad to Medina.

(r. 86–96/715–705), Umayyad caliph.

(d. 2/624), of the Makhzūm clan of Quraysh, persecutor of Muḥammad’s followers in Mecca and a leader of the Meccan opposition against the Muslims at Medina, killed fighting against Muḥammad at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 776; Ḥ 13:214; F 365.)

(d. 61/680), of the Umayyad clan of Mecca’s Quraysh tribe, whose father, ʿUqbah, was killed fighting against Muḥammad at Badr. Walīd converted to Islam after the conquest of Mecca, in 8/630. He was half-brother to ʿUthmān, who appointed him governor of Kufa, then removed him from office because of his wine-drinking. Later, Walīd supported Muʿāwiyah and fought against ʿAlī. (See further: Ḥ 17:227–245.)

(d. 2/624), chieftain of the ʿAbd Shams clan of Quraysh, Muʿāwiyah’s maternal grandfather, slain by ʿAlī in single combat at the Battle of Badr. (See further: B 792; R 3:31; F 369; Ḥ 4:34.)

(d. 207/822), preeminent historian from Medina, also jurist and judge, who settled in Baghdad. Wāqidī authored many books, and only a portion of one book, Kitāb al-Maghāzī (Expeditions), is extant. Names of his lost works, including Kitāb al-Jamal (The Battle of the Camel), and copious quotations from them survive in the historical literature.

testament, including but not limited to a deathbed testament, containing moral advice and/or instructions for distribution of property.

see Qurʾan

appellation applied to Muʿāwiyah and the Syrians who fought ʿAlī at the Battle of Ṣiffīn. (See further: Ḥ 13:183–184; B 771–772; F 364–365.)

early Islamic town in the Najd region of Arabia near Kharj, 70 kilometers southeast of the present-day Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.

lit. the Yemeni, the otherwise unidentified individual who narrated oration § 1.231 from one Aḥmad ibn Qutaybah, identified by some commentators as the equally mysterious Dhiʿlib al-Yamānī, one of ʿAlī’s interlocutors in the present volume.

oasis with wellsprings and date groves, 120 kilometers east of Medina (different from the coastal town of Yanbuʿ or Yenbo, formerly called Yanbuʿ al-Baḥr). In pre-Islamic times, Yanbuʿ al-Nakhl was a worship center for a deity called Suwāʿ. Muḥammad conquered Yanbuʿ al-Nakhl and reportedly built a mosque there. ʿAlī owned an estate there. (See further: Ḥ 13:296.)

(r. 101–105/720–724), Umayyad caliph.

(d. 18/639), from the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe, and Muʿāwiyah’s brother. Yazīd was one of the Meccans who fought against Muḥammad, and after the conquest of Mecca in 8/630 converted to Islam. Afterward, he fought in the Muslim army under ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ against the Byzantines. When ʿAmr left for Egypt, he appointed Yazīd in charge of Syria, where he died in the Plague of Emmaus. (See further: Ḥ 17:256–257.)

well-known region in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Muḥammad sent ʿAlī to Yemen in 10/632 to call its people to Islam. Yemen and Yemenis feature in several texts in the present volume.

black slaves from East Africa brought into early Abbasid Iraq in large numbers to work in the saltpeter mines near Basra. The Zanj rebelled three times within a space of two centuries, including a violent, lengthy rebellion under ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Zanjī, which ravaged Basra from 255/869 to 270/883, causing immeasurable material damage and killing tens of thousands of people. (See further: Ḥ 8:126–214.)

(d. ca. 55/674), of the Khazraj tribe of Medina, one of Muḥammad’s Companions, who served as his scribe and recorded passages of the Qurʾan.

see ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sajjād Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn.

(d. 20/641), Muḥammad’s wife, whom he married in 4/626, after her divorce from his freedman and adopted son Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (Q Aḥzāb 33:37). (See further: Ḥ 9:242.)

(d. 53/673), also known as Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān, deputy for ʿAlī’s governor ʿAbdallāh ibn al-ʿAbbās in Basra. Born out of wedlock to a slave named Sumayyah, Ziyād was later declared his half-brother by Muʿāwiyah and made governor of Iraq. (See further: Ḥ 16:179–204.)

(d. after 37/658), of the Madhḥij tribe, fought for ʿAlī as a subcommander under his tribesman Mālik al-Ashtar at Ṣiffīn and Nahrawān.

(d. 35/656), of the Quraysh, son of Muḥammad’s and ʿAlī’s paternal aunt Ṣafiyyah, one of the earliest Muslims, later a member of the Shūrā Council that elected ʿUthmān. Zubayr was one of the leaders at the Battle of the Camel against ʿAlī. He left the battlefield after the fighting began but was killed by a personal enemy as he was leaving.