After the assassination of the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, the Companions of Muhammad in Medina selected Ali, who had been passed over for the leadership three times since the death of Muhammad, to be the new Caliph. Soon thereafter, Ali dismissed several provincial governors, some of whom were relatives of Uthman, and replaced them with trusted aides, such as Malik al-Ashtar and Salman the Persian. Ali then transferred his capital from Medina to Kufa, a Muslim garrison city in current-day Iraq.