On 29 January 661, the Rashidun Caliphate, then the largest empire in history, came to an end with the assassination of its leader, Ali ibn Abi Talib, in Kufa.
His death marked not just the fall of the last of the Rashidun caliphs but also the culmination of internal conflicts that had fractured the early Islamic state.
The power vacuum left by his passing was swiftly filled by Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, who established the Umayyad Caliphate, inaugurating a dynastic rule that would transform the political landscape of the Muslim world.
This transition heralded a shift from the elective and somewhat egalitarian leadership of the Rashidun era to a hereditary monarchy, setting the stage for centuries of political and ideological divisions within the Islamic realm.
