Ali, the fourth Rashidun caliph, was assassinated (depicted) by Ibn Muljim, leading to the end of the caliphate.

Ali ibn Abi Talib was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from 656 CE until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Fatima bint Asad, Ali was raised by his elder cousin Muhammad and was among the first to accept his teachings.

The Rashidun Caliphate is a title given for the reigns of the first caliphs (lit. "successors") — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali collectively — believed to represent the perfect Islam and governance who led the Muslim community and polity from the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate. The reign of these four caliphs is considered in Islam to have been "rightly-guided", meaning that it constitutes a model to be followed and emulated from a religious point of view. This term is not used by Shia Muslims which make 5 to 7℅ of total muslims population, who reject the rule of the first three caliphs as illegitimate.

Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Rashidun caliph and the first Shia Imam, was assassinated during the morning prayer on 28 January 661 CE, equivalent to 19 Ramadan 40 AH. He died of his wounds about two days after the Kharijite dissident Ibn Muljim struck him over his head with a poison-coated sword at the Great Mosque of Kufa, located in Kufa, in present-day Iraq. He was about sixty-two years of age at the time of his death.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr ibn Muljam al-Muradi, commonly known simply as Ibn Muljam, was a Kharijite dissident known primarily for assassinating ‘Alī ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate and the first Imam of the Shia Imamate.