History

Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, ruling over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661. Ali was also the first young male who accepted Islam. Sunnis consider Ali the fourth and final of the Rashidun (rightly guided Caliphs), whileShias regard Ali as the first Imam after Muhammad, and consider him and his descendants the rightful successors to Muhammad, all of whom are members of the Ahl al-Bayt, the household of Muhammad. This disagreement split the Ummah (Muslim community) into the Sunn.i and Shi`i branches. Many sources, especially Shia ones, record that Ali was the only person born in the sacred sanctuary of the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. When Muhammad reported receiving adivine revelation, Ali was the first young male to accept his message and first to convert to Islam at the age of 12, dedicating his life to the cause of Islam.
Ali migrated to Medina shortly after Muhammad did. Once there Muhammad told Ali that God had ordered Muhammad to give his daughter, Fatimah, to Ali in marriage. For the ten years that Muhammad led the community in Medina, Ali was extremely active in his service, leading parties of warriors in battles, and carrying messages and orders. Ali took part in the early caravan raids from Mecca and later in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community. Ali was appointed Caliph by the Companions of Muhammad (the Sahaba) in Medina after the assassination of the third caliph, `Uthman ibn Affan. While Shia's regard Muhammad's statements in Ghadir Khumm as constituting the designation of Ali as the successor of Muhammad.
He encountered defiance and civil war during his reign. In 661, Ali was attacked one morning while praying in the Great Masjid of Al-Kufah, and died two days later. Ali is respected for his courage, knowledge, belief, honesty, unbending devotion to Islam, deep loyalty to Muhammad, equal treatment of all Muslims and generosity in forgiving his defeated enemies, and therefore is central to mystical traditions in Islam such as Sufism. Ali retains his stature as an authority on Quranic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence and religious thought. Ali holds a high position in almost all Sufi orders which trace their lineage through him to Muhammad. Ali's influence has been important throughout Islamic history.

The story of Rawze-e-Sharif (the Blue Mosque) located in Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan, begins with the assassination of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph of the Muslim community. Ali had become the focus of the community's division, and his followers were at this time in the minority. He was buried in a secret location. In the eighth century, the leader of what became the Shia Islam community, Al-Sheikh Al-Mufid (the sixth Imam), claimed that he knew the location and that it was at Najaf. There a shrine and mosque would be built and a city emerged.

Some contend, however, that the story does not end with the Najaf burial. Rather, they say, some of Ali's followers, concerned about the possible discovery and desecration of the body, removed it, placed it on a camel, and headed east. After several weeks, the camel dropped from exhaustion, and the men buried the body at that spot. In the following years, that location was lost.

However, early in the 12th century, a man living in the area had a dream in which Ali appeared to him and revealed the reburial site near the city of Balkh, in northern Afghanistan. The truth of the claim was investigated and after being confirmed, the local sultan ordered that a shrine be built and a city founded. Around 1220 that mosque and city were destroyed by Genghis Khan. Some rebuilding had occurred by the time Timur (Tamerlane) again laid waste to the region and annexed it to his regime based in Bukhara (in Uzbekistan). A new mosque was finally built in the 15th century.

The present mosque has undergone various refurbishings and expansions over the intervening centuries.

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