Ahl al-Bayt
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Ahl al-Bayt refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Sunni Islam, the term has also been extended to all descendants of the Banu Hashim and even to all Muslims. In Shia Islam, the term is limited to Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, and their two sons, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn. A common Sunni view adds the wives of Muhammad to these five.
Mecca was the birthplace of Muhammad and members of his family, including Ali and Fatima, prior to their migration to Medina in 622. Pictured here is Meccatul Mukarrama Library, also known as Bayt al-Mawlid, because it is believed to stand on the spot where Muhammad was born.
Medina became the home to the Ahl al-Bayt after their migration from Mecca. Pictured in the background is the tomb (marked by the Green Dome) and mosque of Muhammad. In the foreground is the Baqi' cemetery, wherein Hasan and some other relatives of Muhammad are buried.
After the deaths of Muhammad and Fatima in Medina in 632, some of their relatives, including Husayn and Ali, migrated to Iraq and died there. Pictured in the background is the shrine in Najaf where Ali is commonly believed to have been buried, after his assassination in the neighbouring city of Kufa in Iraq.
Names of the Ahl al-Kisa, inscribed in the shrine of Abbas ibn Ali, located in Karbala, Iraq
Ali
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Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from 656 to 661, as well as the first Shia imam. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Fatima bint Asad, a young Ali was raised by his elder cousin Muhammad and was among the first to accept his teachings.
Gouache illustration of Ali (centre) and his sons, Hasan and Husayn, 1838, by an unknown painter
Ali in an illustrated copy of the Turkish epic Siyer-i nebi
Muhammad and Ali, a folio from the fifteenth century Iranian epic Khavarannama