Zulfiqar - Wikiwand

Zulfiqar or Zulfaqar (Arabic: ذو الْفَقار, romanized: Ḏū-l-Faqār, IPA: [ðuː‿l.faˈqaːr]), also spelled Zu al-Faqar, Zulfakar, Dhu al-Faqar, or Dhulfaqar), is the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib that was distinguished by having a double blade.

Thumb — Standard depiction of Ali's sword *Dhulfiqar* in Islam

Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. (August 2025)

Middle Eastern weapons are commonly inscribed with a quote mentioning Zulfiqar,^[1] and Middle Eastern swords are at times made with a split tip in reference to the weapon.^[2]

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Name

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The meaning of the name is uncertain. The word ḏhu (ذُو) means "possessor, master", and the idafa construction "possessor of..." is common in Arabic phraseology, such as in Dhu al-Qarnayn, Dhu al-Kifl, Dhu al-Qadah and Dhu al-Hijjah.

The meaning of faqār (فَقَار), means "splitter, differentiatior". It is often vocalized as fiqār instead of faqār; Lane cites authorities preferring faqār however the vocalization fiqār still sees more widespread use. The word faqār has the meaning of "the vertebrae of the back, the bones of the spine, which are set in regular order, one upon another", but may also refer to other instances of regularly spaced rows, specifically it is a name of the stars of the belt of Orion.

Interpretations of the sword's name as found in Islamic theological writings or popular piety fall into four categories:^[3]

reference to the stars of the belt of Orion, emphasizing the celestial provenance of the sword
interpretation of faqār as an unfamiliar plural of fuqrah "notch, groove, indentation", interpreted as a reference to a kind of decoration of regularly spaced notches or dents on the sword
reference to a "notch" formed by the sword's supposed termination in two points
reference to the literal vertebrae of the spine, yielding an interpretation in the sense of "the severer of the vertebrae; the spine-splitter"

The latter interpretation gives rise to the popular depiction of the sword as a double-pointed scimitar in modern Shia iconography. Heger (2008) considers two additional possibilities:

the name in origin referred simply to a double-edged sword, in Koine Greek the μάχαιρα δίστομη of the New Testament.^{[citation needed]}
fiqār is a corruption of firāq "distinction, division", and the name originally referred to the metaphorical sword discerning between right and wrong.^{[citation needed]}

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Invocation and depiction

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Zulfiqar was frequently depicted on Ottoman flags, especially as used by Janissaries cavalry, in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Zulfiqar is also frequently invoked in talismans. A common talismanic inscription or invocation is the double statement:

لَا سَيْفَ إِلَّا ذُو ٱلْفَقَارِ وَلَا فَتَىٰ إِلَّا عَلِيٌّ
lā sayfa ʾillā ḏū l-faqāri wa-lā fatā ʾillā ʿalīy^un
"There is no sword but the Zulfiqar, and there is no Hero but Ali"

The order of the two-part phrase is sometimes reversed, instead saying "there is no hero but Ali, and there is no sword but Zulfiqar". A record of this statement as part of a longer talismanic inscription was published by Tawfiq Canaan in The Decipherment of Arabic Talismans (1938). Heger (2008) speculates that the talismanic formula may be old and may have originated as a Arab Christian invocation.^[4]

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Legendary background

In legend, the exclamation lā sayfa ʾillā Ḏū l-Faqāri wa-lā fatā ʾillā ʿAlīy^un was made for prophet Muhammad by Allah, Muhammad gave the sword to imam Ali ibn Abi Talib to replace his old broken sword.^[5]

Al-Tirmidhi attributes to Ibn Abbas the tradition that Muhammad acquired the sword on the day of Badr, after he had seen it in a dream concerning the day of Uhud.^[6]

Modern references

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In Qajar Iran, actual swords were produced based on the legendary double-pointed design. Thus, the Higgins Collection holds a ceremonial sabre with a wootz steel blade, dated to the late 19th century, with a cleft tip. The curator comments that "fractures in the tip were not uncommon in early wootz blades from Arabia" suggesting that the legendary double-pointed design is based on a common type of damage incurred by blades in battle. The tip of this specimen is split in the blade plane, i.e. "For about 8" of its length from the point the blade is vertically divided along its axis, producing side-by-side blades, each of which is finished in itself", in the curator's opinion "a virtuoso achievement by a master craftsman".^[7] Another 19th-century blade in the same collection features a split blade as well as saw-tooths along the edge, combining two possible interpretations of the name Dhu-l-Faqar. This blade is likely of Indian workmanship, and it was combined with an older (Mughal era) Indian hilt.^[8]

"Zulfiqar" and its phonetic variations has come into use as given name, as with former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.^{[citation needed]}

In Iran, the name of the sword has been used as an eponym in military contexts; thus, Reza Shah Pahlavi renamed the military order Portrait of the Commander of Faithful to Zolfaghar, the sword of Imam Ali in 1925.^[9] The 58th Takavar Division of Shahroud is also named after the sword.^{[citation needed]}

An Iranian main battle tank is also named after the sword, Zulfiqar.^[10]

Modern claims and discoveries

In February 2025, a sword claimed to be the original Zulfiqar emerged in Swiss media attention.

On February 5, 2025, a Swiss press portal published an article titled "Ancient Arabian weapon or sword of greatest historical significance?" presenting evidence for a sword's authenticity as the original Zulfiqar.^[11]

The claim was met with international media attention and academic debate.

On February 6, 2025, the UAE-based newspaper The National published a critical response titled "Swiss collector claims to have found Prophet Mohammed's sword Zulfiqar, but experts doubt."^[12]

Subsequently, over 100 international publications covered the story.^[13]^{[better source needed]}

In response to the criticism, on February 18, 2025, the Saudi publication Eye of Riyadh and the UAE-based UAE Tribune published analytical reviews defending the authenticity claims.^[14]^[15]

Additional coverage from 204 publications followed.^[16]^{[better source needed]}

A significant endorsement came from the Turkish journal Simge Dergisi, closely connected to Turkey's presidential administration, which published an article on August 4, 2025, substantially supporting the sword's authenticity.^[17]

The sword had previously been catalogued as a replica by the Trakai Historical Museum in Lithuania in 2007, with research involvement from specialists at the P. Gudynas Lithuanian Restoration Center, led by Professor Y. Senvaitene, along with international researchers including Dr. S. Troicher (Switzerland), Prof. A. Bulakh (USA), Prof. Y. Clever (Austria), Prof. A. Lukhtanas (Lithuania), Prof. A. Minzulin and Prof. G. Gerich (both Ukraine).^[18]

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Gallery

Alam Zulfiqar of the Aceh Sultanate (1873-1874)
A Cirebonese flag that historically used by Sultanate of Cirebon with a Chinese influenced lion with the Zulfiqar, and Ali represented as a lion (dated to the late 18th or the 19th century)
An early 19th-century Ottoman Zulfiqar flag
Madurese Zulfiqar Flag in the 19th century
Flag of Kadipaten Sedayu
Drawing of Fatimid version of Zulfiqar in the 10th-century; the earliest visual depiction in history, as carved on Bab al-Nasr, one of the gates of Cairo.
Flag of Hayreddin Barbarossa
Ottoman Zulfiqar flag, captured during the Battle of Guruslău (1601), drawn after Károly Cserna, Transylvanian and Turkish flags (1898)
The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan leading the Mughal Army, in the upper left War elephants bear emblems of the legendary Zulfiqar (17th century)
Flag of Kara Mahmud Pasha (Ottoman Albania, 1796).
Closeup of the saw-toothed and notched point of the 19th-century Indian-made "Zulfiqar" sword kept in the Higgins Collection (accession no. 2240); circa 1800.
Two Zulfiqar swords on a Chinese Islamic scroll, 1845