Najaf: shrine of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib
Shrine of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Najaf, Iraq.
Shiʿi, member of the smaller of the two major branches of Islam, the Shiʿah, distinguished from the majority Sunnis. The origins of the split between the Sunnis and the Shiʿah lie in the events which followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was understood to be the messenger of God who, in the early 7th century ce, commenced to proclaim the Qurʾān, the sacred scripture of Islam, to the Arabs. In the 620s Muhammad...
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