chapter 3

IF THERE WAS A SINGLE PERSON WHO SEEMED DESTINED TO BE Muhammad’s

successor, it was Ali, his ɹrst cousin and the man whose
name the Shia were to take as their own. They were, and
are, the followers of Ali, or in Arabic, Shiat Ali—Shia, for
short.

Ali had been the ɹrst man to accept the new faith of
Islam. He’d been only thirteen years old at the time, yet
he’d remember it with the kind of absolute clarity that
marks the most momentous points of one’s life. It had
happened just after Muhammad’s ɹrst soul-shaking
encounter with the angel Gabriel. Still caught up in the
utter terror of a human who had come face-to-face with
the divine, he had sought refuge in Khadija’s arms, and
once she had reassured him—“This truly is an angel and
not a devil, and you will be the prophet of this people”—
he had called together his closest kinsmen and asked for
their support. “Which of you will assist me in this
cause?” he asked.

As   Ali     would   tell    it,     “They   all     held    back    from    this,