Zulfiqar (Arabic Dhu al-Fiqar) is the legendary sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad who, for Shia Muslims, is the first Imam. Tradition holds that the Prophet gave the sword to Ali, and it became the emblem of his renown as the foremost warrior of early Islam, celebrated in the saying "There is no hero but Ali, and no sword but Zulfiqar." In Islamic art it is typically drawn with a forked, bifurcated blade.
The sword is recorded here as legendary in the strict sense used across this collection: it is real and important as a tradition and as a symbol, but no physical object can be securely identified as the historical Zulfiqar, and even its famous two-pronged shape appears to be a later, symbolic development. Its significance is greatest in Shia Islam, where it is an attribute of Ali and of the line of Imams, but the emblem is known throughout the Muslim world, on banners, arms, talismans and calligraphy.