Event
Ali was born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib, Abu Talib and his wife Fatimah bint Asad, Fatima bint Asad around 600 CE, some thirty years after the Year of the Elephant. Shia and some Sunni sources report that Ali was the only person born in Ka'ba, the ancient shrine in Mecca which later became the most sacred site in Islam. Some sources also contain miraculous descriptions of the incident. In particular, it is said that the wall of Ka'ba or its door slivered open as Fatima prayed there and shut close after she entered. She later emerged from Ka'ba with a baby boy, as people awaited her outside, unable to enter Ka'ba.Historiography
The canonical Shia ''Kitab al-Irshad'' and the Sunni ''The Meadows of Gold'' report that Ali was born inside Ka'ba. Shia sources are unanimous in this belief and regard the incident as unique to Ali and an indication of his high spiritual station. This account is also given by various Sunni authors, who regard birth in Ka'ba as a great distinction, though not unique to Ali. That Ali was born in Ka'ba is also the view of the recent Sunni scholars Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (), Mu'min ibn Hasan al-Shablanji al-Shafi'i (nineteenth century), and Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (). The Shia author Razwi lists some Sunni authors with the same view: * Al-Masudi in ''Murooj-udh-dhahab'' (Volume II) * Muhammad ibn Talha el-Shafi'i in ''Matalib-us-saool'' * El-Umari in ''Sharh ainia'' * Halabi in ''Sira'' (Volume I) * Sibt ibn al-Jauzi in ''Tadhkera khawasil ummah'' * Ibn Sabbagh Maleki in ''Fusoolul mohimma'' * Muhammad bin Yousuf Shafi'i in ''Kifayet al-Talib'' * Mu'min bin Hasan al-Shablanji al-Shafi'i in ''Nurul absar'' * Ibn Zahra in ''Ghiyathul ikhtisar'' * Edvi in ''Nafhatul qudsia'' * Abbas al-Aqqad in a''l-'Abqarriyet al-Imam Ali'' * Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy in ''Min fada-il al-'ashrat al-mubashireen bil janna''References
Citations
Sources
* * * * * {{refend Ali Birthplaces of individual people, Ali ibn Abi Talib