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Gamal Abdel Nasser
Egyptian politician, prime minister 1954-56 and from 1956 president of Egypt (the United Arab Republic 1958-71). |
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Ihsan Abdel Quddous
A popular writer of fiction and his work has been adapted for cinema, television and radio. |
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Mohamed Ali Alabbar
An Executive Director, is the founding member and Chairman of Emaar Properties PJSC since the company's inception on July 29, 1997. He is also Chairman of the Executive Committee and the Nomination Committee of the company. |
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Bashar Al Assad
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad represents stability and continuity after the 30-year rule of his father Hafez Al-Assad. |
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Hafez Al-Assad
Born 1928. He was elected president of Syria in 1971 and reelected in 1978, 1983, 1991, and 1999. He joined the Baath party in 1946 and became air force commander after the Baath took power in 1963. |
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Hoda Badran
Chairperson of the Alliance for Arab Women (AAW), a voluntary organization headquartered in Cairo. |
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Hassiba Boulmerka
One of the first people to be directly elected to the Athletes' Commission of the International Olympic Committee. |
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Abdulaziz Al Ghurair
Born 1954, of the United Arab Emirates, is the Chief Executive Officer of the publicly traded Mashreq Bank, the family's most valuable holding, worth an estimated $8 billion. |
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Gibran Khalil Gibran
Poet, writer, philosopher, musician and artist Gibran was born in Bsharre, north Lebanon. |
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Tawfiq al Hakim
Although he wrote novels, poems and essays, he is best remembered as a prolific playwright who played a key role in the development of Arabic drama. His output covers fifty volumes. He died in 1987. |
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Taha Hussein
President Gamal Abd al-Nasser bestowed on him the highest Egyptian decoration, normally, reserved for heads of state. In 1973, he received the United Nations Human Rights Award. |
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Youssef Idris
One of the most outstanding writers of plays and short stories in Egypt. He was born in a village in Egypt in 1927. |
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Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber
Self-made businessman, philanthropist and UNESCO Special Envoy for Education, Tolerance, and Cultures in the Middle East and UN Spokesperson for Global Forums on Reinventing Government. |
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King Abdullah II
Just before King Hussein of Jordan died in 1999, he named as his successor his eldest son, Abdullah. It was a decision which surprised the Jordanians, who were expecting Queen Noor's eldest son Hamzah to step into his father's shoes. |
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King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz
Was born in 1906 in Riyadh, the third son of a reigning monarch; five years after his father had captured Riyadh. |
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King Hussein I
Born 14 Nov, 1935. Death 7 Feb, 1999. Became king of Jordan in 1953 after his father, Talal, was declared mentally unfit to rule. His grandfather, King Abdullah I, had been assassinated in 1951. |
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Naguib Mahfouz
The first Arab writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in the al-Jamaliyya district of Cairo, Egypt, on December 11, 1911. |
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Amr Moussa
The Arab League’s secretary-general
The Arab League’s secretary-general, Amr Moussa, might not be popular with Israel and the United States, but he enjoys a strong popularity across the Arab world. |
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Nawal El Moutawakel
Born in Casablanca, Morocco, El Moutawakel is an athlete and Olympic Gold medalist. She began as a cross country runner, switched to sprinting and the 400 meters before trying the hurdles. |
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Mohammad Hosni Mubarak
Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak was born in 1928 in Al-Monofeya governorate in northern Egypt. After high school, Mr. Mubarak joined the Egyptian Military Academy, where he received his bachelor degree in Military Sciences. |
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Hassan Nasrallah
Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement. He was born in 1960 in the Bourji Hammoud neighborhood east of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. |
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Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud
The man and vision behind one of the world’s most successful international holding companies has been named twice by Forbes magazine as one of the smartest and most creative investors in the world. |
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Nizar Qabbani
Syrian poet and diplomat, born to a merchant family in Damascus. He was the grand-nephew of the pioneering Arab playwright Abu Khalil Qabbani. |
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Queen Rania of Jordan
Known for her business savvy, elegance and outspokenness, Queen Rania has divided opinion between those who feel she should take a more traditional role and those who see her as a shining example for Arab women. |
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Anwar Sadat
Egyptian politician. Succeeding Nasser as president 1970, he restored morale by his handling of the Egyptian campaign in the 1973 war against Israel. |
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Ali Ahmad Said (Adonis)
Widely acknowledged to be one of the most important poets in the Arabic language. He was a leader of the modernist movement in Arabic poetry in the mid-20th Century. |
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Ghada Samman
Writer and novelist Ghada Samman was born in al-Shamiya in Syria in 1942. Her primary schooling was at the French Lyceé in Damascus, and then she attended government school. |
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Maan Al Sanea
Saudi businessman made fortune securing contracting deals for construction of residential and industrial facilities in and around oil-rich Saudi Arabia's Al-Khobar region in the Eastern province. |
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Bouthaina Shaaban
Writer and women’s rights activist, she was nominated for the “1000 Women for Noble Peace Prize 2005”, and the same year received the Award of “ The Distinguished Woman in Governmental Position”, League of Arab States, Cairo, Egypt. |
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Huda Shaarawi
A lifelong feminist and nationalist activist who grew up in a wealthy family during the last of the harem years, Huda Shaarawi was born in Minya, Upper Egypy in 1879. |
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Ghada Shouaa
Syria’s first ever Olympic gold medalist, and the second Syrian to win a medal in the Olympics. |
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Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem
One of the leading businessmen in Dubai. As executive chairman of Dubai’s Ports, Customs & Free Zone Corporation (PCFZ); chairman of Tejari.com, a B2B marketplace; and chairman of the recently established property development company Nakheel.. |
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Saadallah Wannous
Dramatist, theater producer and playwright, Wannous was born in Syria in a coastal village near Tartus. He received his early education there and went on to study journalism in Cairo. |
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Ahmed Zewail
Egyptian chemist, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize “for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy". |
