Ali: Did you mean...?

Nighttime in a City, Persian manuscript folio attributed to Mir Sayyid ‘Ali, Tabriz, Iran, c. 1540. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of John Goelet, formerly in the collection of Louis J. Cartier.

A drawing of a 3rd century CE Sasanian rock relief in Naqsh-e Rustam, Iran. The relief shows on the right Ardashir I (r. 224-241 CE) and on the left the supreme Persian and Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. The god is giving...

Portrait of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, oil on canvas by Charles-Philippe Larivière, France, 1846. Ibrahim Pasha was the son of Mehmed Ali Pasha, the Egyptian governor who defied Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II and launched...

Silk damask flag from Istanbul, dated 1810–1811 CE; it depicts the zulfiqar, Caliph Ali's (r. 656-661 CE) two-pronged sword.

An adapted version of the calligraphic pane of Husayn ibn Ali in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.

Persian mirror case with bird-and-flower motif, painting by Ali Ashraf, 1751. Brooklyn Museum.

The tympanon, the most popular frame-drum in ancient Greece, is now transformed into different varieties of drums. The original form of this instrument, identical in shape and making and producing the same...

Timbuktu (Timbuctoo) is a city in Mali, West Africa which was an important trade centre of the Mali Empire which flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries. The city, founded c. 1100, gained wealth from...

The Mali Empire (1240-1645) of West Africa was founded by Sundiata Keita (r. 1230-1255) following his victory over the kingdom of Sosso (c. 1180-1235). Sundiata's centralised government, diplomacy and well-trained army permitted a...

Mansa Musa I was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa from 1312 to 1337. Controlling territories rich in gold and copper, and monopolising trade between the north and interior of the continent, Mali...