Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries
Filterable archive covering centuries of intellectual, artistic, and moral contributions to the human story.
Chrรฉtien de Troyes
(Chrรฉtien de Troyes)
Great French medieval trouvรจre and poet who originated the Arthurian courtly romance, inventing the Holy Grail quest and the tragic romance of Lancelot and Guinevere.
Henry II of England
(Henry Plantagenet)
First Plantagenet King of England who established the English Common Law, the jury system, and the vast Angevin Empire.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune
(ๆบ็พฉ็ต)
Brilliant samurai commander of the Genpei War who led the Minamoto clan to total victory over the Taira at Ichi-no-Tani, Yashima, and Dan-no-ura.
Usama ibn Munqidh
(ุฃุณุงู
ุฉ ุจู ู
ููุฐ)
Syrian warrior-diplomat from Shayzar Castle whose delightful autobiography 'Kitab al-I'tibar' offers vivid eyewitness accounts of Crusader customs.
Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman al-Suhayli
(ุฃุจู ุงููุงุณู
ุนุจุฏ ุงูุฑุญู
ู ุงูุณูููู)
Blind Andalusian-Moroccan polymath, master grammarian, and author of Al-Rawd al-Unuf who was summoned to Marrakech by Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf and is celebrated as one of the Seven Saints of Marrakech.
Ibn Tufail
(ุฃุจู ุจูุฑ ู
ุญู
ุฏ ุจู ุนุจุฏ ุงูู
ูู ุจู ุทููู ุงูููุณู ุงูุฃูุฏูุณู)
Andalusian Muslim philosopher and physician who authored the philosophical novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (The Self-Taught Philosopher), which inspired John Locke's tabula rasa and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Bhaskara II (Bhaskaracharya)
(เคญเคพเคธเฅเคเคฐเคพเคเคพเคฐเฅเคฏ)
Preeminent medieval Indian mathematician who authored the Siddhanta Shiromani and Lilavati, solving Pell's equation (Chakravala method) and discovering differential calculus principles.
Abu Yaqub Yusuf I
(ุฃุจู ูุนููุจ ููุณู ุจู ุนุจุฏ ุงูู
ุคู
ู)
Cultured second Almohad Caliph (1163โ1184) who constructed the monumental Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh and the Great Mosque of Seville (Giralda), personally commissioning Averroรซs to comment on Aristotle.
Abu Yaqub Yusuf
(ุฃุจู ูุนููุจ ููุณู ุจู ุนุจุฏ ุงูู
ุคู
ู)
Second Almohad Caliph, distinguished philosopher-monarch who commissioned the Giralda in Seville, assembled the greatest imperial library in the Mediterranean, and personally sponsored philosopher Averroes.
Abu Yahya ibn Abi Sinan al-Masmudi
(ุฃุจู ูุญูู ุจู ุฃุจู ุณูุงู ุงูู
ุตู
ูุฏู)
Supreme Almohad naval commander and master shipbuilder who developed the imperial dockyards of Salรฉ and Ceuta, securing dominance over the Atlantic and Mediterranean sealanes.
Ahmad ibn Ali al-Rifa'i
(ุฃุญู
ุฏ ุจู ุนูู ุงูุฑูุงุนู)
Venerated Iraqi Sufi master, jurist, and founder of the Rifa'iyya order who taught radical humility, service to animals and the afflicted, and legendary devotion to the Prophet.
Louis VII the Younger
(Louis VII le Jeune)
Capetian King of the Franks whose eventful reign included leading the Second Crusade, the annulment of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the laying of the foundation stone of Notre-Dame de Paris in 1163.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen
(Hildegard von Bingen)
Benedictine abbess, mystic, polymath, and composer whose luminous liturgical chants in Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum and allegorical morality play Ordo Virtutum mark the summit of medieval sacred music.
Hildegard of Bingen (Sibyl of the Rhine)
(Hildegard von Bingen)
Twelfth-century visionary abbess, composer, naturalist, and Doctor of the Church. Authored Scivias detailing luminous cosmic revelations, composed transcendent liturgical music, and articulated the theology of Viriditas (divine greening power).
Nashwan al-Himyari
(ูุดูุงู ุงูุญู
ูุฑู)
Eminent 12th-century Yemeni scholar, judge, and poet whose monumental multi-volume dictionary 'Shams al-Ulum' preserved South Arabian linguistics.
Ibn Asakir
(ุงุจู ุนุณุงูุฑ)
Monumental 12th-century Damascene historian whose eighty-volume Tarikh Dimashq is the most comprehensive biographical history of Syria.
Umar al-Hantati
(ุฃุจู ุญูุต ุนู
ุฑ ุงูููุชุงุชู)
Foremost Berber tribal chieftain of the Hintata confederation in the High Atlas, closest lieutenant to Ibn Tumart and Abd al-Mu'min, and founding ancestor of the Hafsid Dynasty of Ifriqiya.
Abu Ya'qub Yusuf al-Warglani
(ุฃุจู ูุนููุจ ููุณู ุจู ุฅุจุฑุงููู
ุงููุงุฑุฌูุงูู)
Towering 12th-century philosopher, logician, and legal theorist from Ouargla, author of 'Al-Dalil wa-l-Burhan' which integrated Aristotelian logic with Islamic theology.