Ali

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name ῾Ālī ‘high’, ‘lofty’, ‘sublime’. Al-῾Ālī ‘the All-High’ is an attribute of Allah. ῾Abdul-῾Ālī means ‘servant of the All-High’. ῾Ālī ibn Abī Ṭālib (c. 600–661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was the fourth and last of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 656–61) and the first imam of the Shiite Muslims. His assassination led to the appearance of the Shiite sect.