Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi

عبد الرحمن بن ملجم المرادي

One of the Kharijites, who plotted with al-Barak ibn Abd Allah to kill Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) and Mu'awiya ^{1 2}. According to al-Suyuti, the three agreed in Mecca to kill the leaders on the night of 17 Ramadan. Ibn Muljam went to Kufa and struck Ali on the forehead with a sword as he came out calling people to prayer, and Ali died on Sunday night. Ibn Muljam's extremities were cut off; he was put in a basket and burned with fire. He had fallen in love with a Kharijite woman named Qatam, and he gave her a dowry of three thousand dirhams, a slave and a singing-girl, and then struck Ali with the sword ³. According to al-Mas'udi, he was of the Tujib, but his reckoning was among Murad; he chose Ali as one of the targets of the pact against the three leaders, and sought in marriage Qatam, his paternal cousin, for her dowry, then struck Ali on the head as he was waking people for the prayer. When they had cut off his hands and feet, Abd Allah ibn Ja'far heated a nail and applied it to his eyes as kohl, and Ibn Muljam said: 'You are applying molten lead to your uncle's eye.' Then they burned him ⁴.