Eighth Twelver Imam; Madinah and Khurasan
Family and religious authority
Ali al-Ridha was the son of Musa al-Kazim. Twelver Muslims recognize him as the eighth Imam. He lived in Madinah before his journey to the Abbasid court in Khurasan.
The Abbasid court
The caliph al-Ma‘mun designated him as heir, an unusual arrangement that brought an Alid religious figure into the centre of Abbasid succession politics. Accounts of this period also associate him with learned debate.
Death and shrine
He died near Tus in 203 AH / 818 CE. Reports about the circumstances of his death, including poisoning, require attribution rather than certainty. His burial place developed into the major shrine associated with Mashhad. His life connects the history of the Prophet’s descendants, Abbasid government and Iranian religious memory.
Sources and further study
Encyclopaedia Iranica — Ali al-Ridha
An introductory, source-attributed profile. Dates and disputed reports are qualified where necessary. The linked works represent their authors’ historical or religious approaches; linking a source does not endorse every interpretation it contains.