Leaders
40 biographies
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
عمر بن عبد العزيز
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was an Umayyad prince, scholar and caliph who ruled from 717 to 720. Born in Medina around 61 AH / 680, he studied with leading scholars of the city and governed the Hijaz before becoming an adviser to Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. He accepted the caliphate after Sulayman’s death and pursued a short but influential program of administrative, fiscal and religious reform: he recalled the army besieging Constantinople, replaced abusive officials, sought restitution of wrongfully appropriated property, ended the official cursing of Ali in sermons, treated non-Arab Muslim converts as Muslims for poll-tax purposes, and promoted the written collection of hadith. Later Muslim memory often called him the “fifth rightly guided caliph”, but this was an honorific retrospective judgment rather than a separate historical office. He died in Syria in 101 AH / 720; reports that he was poisoned remain unproven.
Read biography
Harun al-Rashid
هارون الرشيد
Fifth Abbasid caliph, he reigned during the golden age of Islam. His reign was marked by an unprecedented cultural, scientific and economic flourishing.
Read biography
Nur ad-Din Zangi
نور الدين زنكي
Zengid sultan who unified Syria and prepared the ground for the reconquest of Jerusalem. Known for his piety and justice.
Read biography
Suleiman the Magnificent
سليمان القانوني
Ottoman sultan at the height of his power, he extended the empire into central Europe. A reforming legislator and patron of the arts and sciences.
Read biography
Muhammad Ali Pasha
محمد علي باشا
Founder of modern Egypt, he modernized the Egyptian army, education and economy in the 19th century.
Read biography
Talut
Read biography
Tariq ibn Ziyad
Read biography
Musa ibn Nusayr
Read biography
Uqba ibn Nafi
Read biography
Muhammad ibn Qasim
Read biography
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Read biography
Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik
Read biography
Al-Mansur
Read biography
Al-Mamun
Read biography
Abd al-Rahman I
Read biography
Abd al-Rahman III
Read biography
Yusuf ibn Tashfin
Read biography
Alp Arslan
Read biography
Malik Shah I
Read biography
Imad al-Din Zengi
Read biography
Qutuz
Read biography
Baybars
Read biography
Osman I
Read biography
Orhan
Read biography
Selim I
Read biography
Babur
Read biography
Akbar
Read biography
Aurangzeb
Read biography
Tipu Sultan
Read biography
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Read biography
Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi
Read biography
Omar al-Mukhtar
Read biography
Mahmud of Ghazni
Read biography
Muhammad Ghori
Read biography
Sher Shah Suri
Read biography
Alauddin Khalji
Read biography
Razia Sultan
Read biography
Shajar al-Durr
Read biography
Timur
Read biography
Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan
Read biography