Sulṭān ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Bāqir ibn ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ibn Al-Ḥusayn (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
: سلطان علي بن محمد الباقر بن علي زين العابدين بن الحسين) was the son of the fifth imam of
Twelver Shi'i
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
Muslims and fourth imam of
Isma'ili Shi'i Muslims,
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muḥammad al-Bāqir ( ar, مُحَمَّد ٱلْبَاقِر), with the full name Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, also known as Abū Jaʿfar or simply al-Bāqir () was the fifth Imam in Shia Islam, succee ...
. Born in Medina, Ali, known in Iran as "Sultan Ali," was dispatched by his father to the areas of
Kashan
Kashan ( fa, ; Qashan; Cassan; also romanized as Kāshān) is a city in the northern part of Isfahan province, Iran. At the 2017 census, its population was 396,987 in 90,828 families.
Some etymologists argue that the city name comes from ...
and
Qom, where he served as a Friday prayer leader and teacher; his popularity and his preaching of Shi'i Islam proved threatening to the local representative of the
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
dynasty. The Umayyad representative's forces cornered and killed Sultan Ali and a band of his supporters, after a prolonged battle, and before a larger group of supporters could arrive, in
Ardihal, a village roughly 45 kilometers east of Kashan on August 7, 734 CE (27 Jamadi II, 116 AH). He is still revered by Shi'i Muslims, especially in Iran, where his burial place—which has undergone repeated renovations but dates, in part, to the Saljuq period—has become a site of visitation. The shrine is known for a distinctive annual carpet-washing ritual (''qālī-shūyān'') that occurs on the seventeenth day of autumn to commemorate the day of Sultan Ali's martyrdom, a ritual that might have its origins in Sultan Ali's body having been wrapped in a carpet and brought to the site of his burial after his murder.
According to genealogical reports, Sultan Ali was the son of the
fifth Shi'i imam, the brother to the
sixth Shi'i imam, as well as possibly father-in-law to the
seventh Shi'i imam, by way of his daughter Fāṭima.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Imam Reza Website
Husaynids
Shia Muslims
Twelvers
8th-century Arabs
734 deaths
8th-century people from the Umayyad Caliphate
Rebellions against the Umayyad Caliphate