Ali al-Hadi

Ali al-Hadi (Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad), also called al-Naqi ("the pure") and al-Hadi ("the guide"), is revered in Twelver Shia Islam as the tenth of the Twelve Imams — the line of spiritual leaders whom Twelvers hold to be the rightful guides of the community after the Prophet Muhammad. His standing as Imam is a position held by Twelver Shia Muslims; Sunni Muslims honor him as a pious descendant of the Prophet but do not share the doctrine of the Imamate.

He was born around 212 AH (about 828 CE), traditionally at a village near Medina, the son of Muhammad al-Jawad, the ninth Imam. According to Twelver tradition he assumed the Imamate as a child after his father's death (c. 220/835), and most of his father's followers accepted him.

Around 233 AH (848 CE) the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil summoned him from Medina to the new garrison-capital at Samarra; he reportedly arrived on 23 Ramadan 233 (1 May 848) and remained there for the rest of his life under official watch. Scholars differ on how confined he was: the historian Wilferd Madelung notes he could move within the town, while Shia tradition emphasizes a prisoner-like restriction. He died at Samarra in 254 AH (c. 868 CE). Most Shia authors report that he was poisoned by the Abbasids, though the early Shia scholar al-Mufid records no cause; the poisoning is a traditional claim, not an attested fact. He was buried at Samarra, in what became the al-Askari Shrine, and was succeeded by his son Hasan al-Askari.