Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Abu Iqal al-Aghlab ibn Ibrahim

أبو عقال الأغلب بن إبراهيم

Tunisia

c. 790 AD – February 841 AD (~51 years old)

Fourth Aghlabid Emir (838–841 AD), renowned for personal piety, legal erudition, and generous patronization of scholars, doctors, and hydraulic engineers in Kairouan.

Kairouan, Tunisia

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Ziyadat Allah I

زيادة الله الأول

Tunisia

0788 – 0838 (50 years old)

Aghlabid Emir of Ifriqiya (817–838 CE) who launched the historic Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827 CE and rebuilt the magnificent Great Mosque of Kairouan in its enduring stone splendour.

Kairouan, Tunisia

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Muhammad ibn Idris al-Azhar

محمد بن إدريس الأزهر

Morocco

805 – 836 (31 years old)

Third Sultan of the Idrisid dynasty who succeeded his father Idris II in 828 AD, dividing administrative governorships among his brothers upon the advice of his grandmother Kenza.

Fez, Morocco

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Kukai

空海

Japan

0774 – 0835 (60 years old)

Polymath, calligrapher, engineer, and founder of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism who built Mount Koya and taught 'attaining Buddhahood in this very body' (Sokushin Jobutsu).

Mount Koya, Japan

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Al-Ma'mun (The Scholar Caliph)

عبد الله المأمون بن هارون الرشيد

Iraq

0786 – 0833 (46 years old)

Abbasid Caliph who presided over the zenith of the Islamic Golden Age, expanding the House of Wisdom and measuring the circumference of the Earth.

Tarsus, Cilicia, Turkey

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Idris II of Morocco

إدريس الثاني بن إدريس

Morocco

0791 – 0828 (37 years old)

Posthumous son of Idris I who assumed sovereignty at age eleven, founded the imperial capital city of Fez in 808 CE, and consolidated the administrative, judicial, and cultural institutions of Morocco.

Fez, Morocco

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Asad ibn al-Furat

أسد بن الفرات

Iraq

0759 – 0828 (69 years old)

Eminent Islamic jurist, scholar of both the Hanafi and Maliki schools, and Grand Qadi of Kairouan who at age sixty-eight commanded the historic naval expedition that began the Muslim conquest of Sicily.

Syracuse (Sicily), Italy

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Science

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Al-Asma'i

الأصمعي

Iraq

740 – 828 (88 years old)

Brilliant Basran polymath and lexicographer whose field expeditions among desert Bedouins founded Arabic zoological science and lexicography.

Basra, Iraq

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Theodore the Studite

Θεόδωρος ὁ Στουδίτης

Turkey

c. 759 CE – 0826 (67 years old)

Abbot of the Stoudios Monastery who reformed Eastern Christian monasticism, championing community life, book copying, and intellectual defense of holy icons.

Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey

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Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman

عبد الوهاب بن عبد الرحمن بن رستم

Algeria

c. 755 – 823 (~68 years old)

Second Imam of the Rustamid state in Tahert who consolidated the Ibadi democratic imamate, founded desert trade arteries, and welcomed Christian and Sunni scholars to his court.

Tiaret, Algeria

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Saicho

最澄

Japan

0767 – 0822 (54 years old)

Founder of Tendai Buddhism in Japan who established Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, championed universal Buddhahood through the Lotus Sutra, and fought for independent Mahayana ordination.

Mount Hiei (Kyoto), Japan

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Politics

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Dawud ibn Yazid al-Muhallabi

داود بن يزيد المهلبي

Tunisia

c. 750 AD – 821 AD (~71 years old)

Son of Yazid ibn Hatim who served as governor of Ifriqiya in 787 AD, successfully maintaining the civil administration of Kairouan and ensuring continuity of public works.

Mansura (Sindh), Pakistan

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Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (Nasir al-Sunnah)

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Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (Nasir al-Sunnah)

محمد بن إدريس الشافعي

Palestine

c. 767 CE (150 AH) – 20 January 820 CE (204 AH) (52 years old)

Supreme legal jurist and poet who formulated the science of Islamic legal theory (Usul al-Fiqh). Reconciled the rationalist school of Iraq with the traditionalist school of the Hijaz in his seminal treatise Al-Risala.

Fustat (Cairo), Egypt

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Ali ibn Musa al-Rida

علي بن موسى الرضا

Iraq

c. 766 CE – 0818 (52 years old)

Eighth Shia Imam and revered scholar whose profound interfaith debates in Merv and famous Hadith of the Golden Chain in Nishapur confirmed the sanctuary of divine unity.

Mashhad, Iran

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Politics

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Abdallah I ibn Ibrahim al-Aghlabi

عبد الله الأول بن إبراهيم الأغلبي

Tunisia

c. 780 AD – 817 AD (~37 years old)

Second Aghlabid Emir (812–817 AD) who consolidated the autonomous dynastic state founded by his father Ibrahim I, maintaining domestic order from the palatial city of Al-Abbasiya.

Kairouan, Tunisia

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Military

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Harthama ibn A'yan al-Balkhi

هرثمة بن أعين البلخي

Afghanistan

c. 740 AD – June 816 AD (~76 years old)

Abbasid governor sent by Harun al-Rashid to govern Ifriqiya in 795 AD, who founded the monumental Ribat of Monastir in 796 AD, the oldest and best-preserved ribat fortress in North Africa.

Monastir, Tunisia

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Religion

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