After Uthman's murder the community chooses Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law; his caliphate is consumed by civil war against Aisha's party and then Mu'awiya's, and Shia Islam holds him the first rightful Imam, wrongly kept from rule for twenty-five years.
Tagged: Muslim Sunni Islam Twelver Shia Islam
The Event
- Date
- 656–661 (exact)
- Era
- Rashidun; Standard periodization of Islamic history
- Location
- Kufa; today Kufa, Iraq
- Traditions
- Islam
- Streams
- Twelver Shia Islam, Sunni Islam
- Key figures
- Ali ibn Abi Talib
- Key texts
- Nahj al-Balagha (attributed)
Primary Sources
- Al-Tabari, History
Secondary Sources
- Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (Routledge, 3rd ed. 2016)
- Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (Norton, 2006)
Provenance: HIST-0210; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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