1. "I shook up the world! I shook up the world! » "Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up." "Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it, and I didn't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name, and I insist people use it when speaking to me and of me."

2. Some Quotes to Remember  "Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people. »  "I am America. I am the part you won't recognise, but get used to me. Black, confident, cocky. My name, not yours. My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me."  "We were brought here 400 years ago for a job. Why don't we get out and build our own nation and quit begging for jobs? We'll never be free until we own our own land. We're 40m people and we don't have two acres that's truly ours."

3. The politics  "I am America. I am the part you won't recognise, but get used to me. Black, confident, cocky. My name, not yours. My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me."  "We were brought here 400 years ago for a job. Why don't we get out and build our own nation and quit begging for jobs? We'll never be free until we own our own land. We're 40m people and we don't have two acres that's truly ours."

4. The politics  "I'm gonna fight for the prestige, not for me, but to uplift my little brothers who are sleeping on concrete floors today in America. Black people who are living on welfare, black people who can't eat, black people who don't know no knowledge of themselves, black people who don't have no future."  "I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free."  "What's really hurting me - the name Islam is involved, and Muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting hate and violence. Islam is not a killer religion, Islam means peace. I couldn't just sit home and watch people label Muslims as the reason for this problem." In the aftermath of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks.

5. On refusing to serve in the United States Army:  "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"  "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me nigger."  "I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over."

6. The character  "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.  It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am  "I am the greatest!"  "I'm not the greatest, I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. I'm the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skilfullest fighter in the ring today."  "People don't realise what they had until it's gone. Like President Kennedy, nobody like him. Like The Beatles, there will never be anything like them. Like my man, Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing."

7. The character  "I don't want to fight to be an old man... I'm gonna only fight five or six years, make me two or three million dollars and quit fighting."  "It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am."  "The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain't ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month? I said I was 'The Greatest', I never said I was the smartest!"  "At home I am a nice guy - but I don't want the world to know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far."

8. The character  "When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace."  "A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."  "Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."  "If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologise."

9. The character  "I love to see my name where everyone can read it. Someday I'm gonna see it in bright, bright lights."  "I won't miss fighting - fighting will miss me."  "Superman don't need no seatbelt."  "I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."

10. The character  "Maybe my Parkinson's is God's way of reminding me what is important. It slowed me down and caused me to listen rather than talk. Actually, people pay more attention to me now because I don't talk as much."  "I always liked to chase the girls. Parkinson's stops all that. Now I might have a chance to go to heaven."  "Will they ever have another fighter who writes poems, predicts rounds, beats everybody, makes people laugh, makes people cry and is as tall and extra pretty as me?"

11. Africa  Muhammad Ali was idolised across Africa for his prowess in the boxing ring and for championing the rights of black people.  Following his funeral on Friday, the BBC looks at his relationship with the continent

13.  Ali embarked on his first African tour in 1964, saying: "I want to see Africa and meet my brothers and sisters." His visit began in Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to win independence from a European power.

15.  "I am glad to tell our people that there are more things to be seen in Africa than lions and elephants. They never told us about your beautiful flowers, magnificent hotels, beautiful houses, beaches, great hospitals, schools, and universities," he said.

17.  Ali spent time in 1974 training in Kinshasa, built on the banks of the Congo River, getting acclimatised to its tropical climate and attracted crowds of fans when he went out in the city.

18.  His itinerary included Nigeria, Africa's most populous state, where crowds welcomed him with chants of "king of the world".  The African trip came in a historic year for Ali - he defeated Sonny Liston to become world champion, dropped his "slave name" of Cassius Clay and converted to Islam.

19. Sonny Liston

20. The 22-year-old also visited Egypt, bridging the racial divide in Africa.

21. He fused politics and religion, giving the black power salute while shouting in Arabic "God is great" at the pyramids in Cairo.

22.  He visited Egypt again in 1986.  He once said that if a boxer was to be big, he had to be a Muslim "or else he won't get to nations like Indonesia, Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and Turkey - those are all countries that don't usually follow boxing".

24. Kinshasa  His most famous visit to the continent was in 1974 to Kinshasa, capital of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), for the Rumble in the Jungle fight in which he reclaimed the world title after defeating George Foreman.

26.  Zaire's then ruler Mobutu Sese Seko arranged the fight, which increased Ali's fame and brought the country to the world's attention.  Mobutu agreed to pay $5m (equivalent to approximately $24m today) to each fighter.

28.  The fight was held at 04:00 local time. Millions watched around the globe on television as Ali entered the ring whipping up the 60,000 crowd, who chanted "Ali, boma ye", a phrase in the local Lingala language meaning "Ali, knock him out".

31.  He visited Sudan in 1988, four years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, to spread the message of Islam as a religion of peace. Here he prays in a Sufi mosque in Khartoum.

33.  South Africa's first black President Nelson Mandela, who had also been a boxer, once said: "Muhammad Ali was not just my hero, but the hero of millions of young, black South Africans because he brought dignity to boxing." The pair met in 2005.