No reliable date or place of birth is preserved. As a daughter of Ali, she belongs to the family record of the first Islamic century.
Umm al-Kiram bint Ali
PER-000056
Ahl al-Bayt
Probable
Burial place unknown
Imami source baseline
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Umm al-Kiram bint Ali is preserved in Imami and Sunni historical and genealogical lists as a daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Independent comparison resolves the main identity risk: al-Mufid, Ibn al-Athir, and Ibn Kathir list Umm al-Kiram and Nafisa separately, while al-Bayhaqi also preserves Umm al-Kiram as a distinct daughter and identifies Nafisa in a different entry. No reliable independent biography establishes her mother by name, birth, marriage, children, death, or burial, so the profile remains deliberately limited to the evidence.
No reliable date, place, or circumstances of death are preserved.
Burial is unknown. No reliable independent source or protected primary-shrine and geographic link establishes a grave.
Biography and historical profile
The direct English text of al-Mufid's Kitab al-Irshad lists Nafisa as child 17 and Umm al-Kiram as child 21 in the chapter on the children of Ali. They are separated by several other names, so this source does not treat Umm al-Kiram as another name for Nafisa. Its secure contribution is genealogical: it preserves Umm al-Kiram as a distinct daughter in the family record of the Ahl al-Bayt.
Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh and Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya independently repeat the distinction. Both place Umm al-Kiram and Nafisa separately among daughters of Ali born to different umm walads whose personal names were not preserved in those accounts. These parallel Sunni historical lists strongly support the father-daughter attribution while leaving her mother unidentified.
Al-Bayhaqi's Lubab al-Ansab also lists Umm al-Kiram among Ali's daughters. In the same section it separately states that Umm Kulthum al-Sughra was named Nafisa. This wording helps explain how later digital metadata may have produced a conflation, but it does not support identifying Umm al-Kiram herself as Nafisa. The later index equation is therefore removed as unsupported.
No inspected source supplies a reliable independent account of her birth date, age, education, marriage, children, journeys, political activity, Karbala participation, or transmission of learning. Her status as a daughter of Ali does not by itself place her in any specific event. Responsible writing must preserve this silence rather than filling it with devotional or genealogical assumptions.
No reliable source establishes her date or place of death or identifies a grave. Her burial is therefore recorded as unknown. The value of this profile lies in preserving a distinct but sparsely documented member of the Ahl al-Bayt with the limits of the evidence made explicit.
Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh and Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya independently repeat the distinction. Both place Umm al-Kiram and Nafisa separately among daughters of Ali born to different umm walads whose personal names were not preserved in those accounts. These parallel Sunni historical lists strongly support the father-daughter attribution while leaving her mother unidentified.
Al-Bayhaqi's Lubab al-Ansab also lists Umm al-Kiram among Ali's daughters. In the same section it separately states that Umm Kulthum al-Sughra was named Nafisa. This wording helps explain how later digital metadata may have produced a conflation, but it does not support identifying Umm al-Kiram herself as Nafisa. The later index equation is therefore removed as unsupported.
No inspected source supplies a reliable independent account of her birth date, age, education, marriage, children, journeys, political activity, Karbala participation, or transmission of learning. Her status as a daughter of Ali does not by itself place her in any specific event. Responsible writing must preserve this silence rather than filling it with devotional or genealogical assumptions.
No reliable source establishes her date or place of death or identifies a grave. Her burial is therefore recorded as unknown. The value of this profile lies in preserving a distinct but sparsely documented member of the Ahl al-Bayt with the limits of the evidence made explicit.
Historical importance and legacy
Umm al-Kiram's entry preserves the name of a woman of the Ahl al-Bayt whose independent life story has not survived. Multiple Imami and Sunni lists agree on the core relationship to Ali, so the record has genuine genealogical value even without a developed biography.
The deep QA also demonstrates why source comparison matters. The strongest lists distinguish Umm al-Kiram from Nafisa, and al-Bayhaqi associates the name Nafisa with Umm Kulthum al-Sughra in a separate entry. Correcting the later digital conflation protects both identities while retaining uncertainty about Umm al-Kiram's mother, marriage, death, and burial.
The deep QA also demonstrates why source comparison matters. The strongest lists distinguish Umm al-Kiram from Nafisa, and al-Bayhaqi associates the name Nafisa with Umm Kulthum al-Sughra in a separate entry. Correcting the later digital conflation protects both identities while retaining uncertainty about Umm al-Kiram's mother, marriage, death, and burial.
Family relationships
👪 Parents
Father
Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib
Probable
Sources
Kitab al-Irshad | Shaykh al-Mufid; English translation by I. K. A. Howard | Chapter VIII, PDF pp. 201-202; pagination varies by edition | https://themahdi.wiki/english/books/kitab_al-irshad_part_1.pdf | Lists Nafisa as child 17 and Umm al-Kiram as child 21, proving distinct entriesAl-Kamil fi al-Tarikh | Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir | Vol. 2, p. 748, account of Ali's children | https://www.islamweb.net/ar/library/content/126/526/ | Lists Umm al-Kiram and Nafisa separately among daughters by different umm walads
Al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya | Ismail Ibn Kathir | Vol. 11, p. 27, wives and children of Ali | https://www.islamweb.net/ar/library/content/59/871/ | Lists Umm al-Kiram and Nafisa separately and leaves their mothers unnamed
Lubab al-Ansab wa al-Alqab wa al-A'qab | Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Zayd al-Bayhaqi | Children of Ali section, digital p. 19; pagination varies by edition | https://shamela.ws/book/355/19 | Lists Umm al-Kiram as a daughter and separately identifies Umm Kulthum al-Sughra as named Nafisa
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