Salman the Persian

Born Ruzbeh Khoshnudan, he trained as a Zoroastrian magus before restlessness sent him traveling across Western Asia, seeking dialogue with faiths not his own. That search ended in Medina, where he met Muhammad and converted to Islam. Muhammad counted him family — "Salman is part of my Ahlul-Bayt," he told the gathered faithful — and the Persian became one of the Prophet's closest companions despite being an outsider in an Arab movement. In 627, with the Quraysh army marching from Mecca to besiege the city, Salman proposed digging a massive trench around Yathrib, borrowing a Sasanian military…