The Zulfiqar Sword
Zulfiqar, meaning “bifurcated” (Arabic: ذو الفقار Dhū l-Fiqār) is the sword of the Islamic leader Ali (or Husayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib) who was the cousin of Muhammed. In Arabic the name is commonly transliterated asDhu al-Fiqar, Thulfeqar, Dhulfiqar, or Zoulfikar.
Two swords were captured from the temple of Manat in the Raid of Sa’d ibn Zaid al-Ashhali. Muhammad gave them to Ali, saying that one of them was Al-Dhulfiqar, which became the famous sword of Ali and a symbol of Shia Islam. According to the Twelver Shia, Zulfiqar is currently in the possession of Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, as part of his collection called al-Jafr.
The name of the sword influences still, for example the last Shah of Iran renamed the military order Portrait of the Commander of Faithful to Order of Zolfaghar. During the Bosnian War, a Bosnian army’s special unit was named “Zulfikar”.
Also, in 2010, The Islamic Republic of Iran revealed the attack boat dubbed the Zolfaghar, likening it to the sword as an unstoppable weapon of its time. The Iranian Zulfiqar main battle tank is also named after the sword.
