A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Z

Jaffar Al Askari

Birth:1887

Death:1936

An Iraqi statesman, born in Baghdad and educated at Istanbul. He joined Turkish army in 1909, but joined rebel Arab movements in 1916 against the Turk. He served as Faisal's chief of Staff and was appointed Governor of Aleppo in 1918-20 and defence Minister in the first ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah

Birth:1926

Death:2006

Emir of Kuwait who led the country in riches and ruin. The soft-spoken emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the 13th ruler in a family dynasty dating back to 1756, ruled the oil-rich Kuwait, for 28 years through the tumult of the Iran-Iraq war and the invasion of ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jabir Ibn Hayyan

Birth:c721

Death:803

Generally known as the father of chemistry. Jabir was a Court Physician in Caliph Harun al-Rashid. He established himself as one of the leading scientist while he practiced medicine and alchemy in Kufa around 776. Jabir is famous for writing more than 100 monumental treatises, of which 22 ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jafar Al Barmaki

Birth:767

Death:803

Wazir. Jaffar succeeded his father as Wazir to Khalifa Harun al Rashid, his grand father having been wazir to Saffah who was the first Caliph to have a wazir. Jaffar was married to Harun al Rahsid's sister and had great powers, but due to its ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jafar Ali Khan

Birth:1691

Death:1765

Nawab. Jafar is commonly known as Mir Jafar whom the British made the Nawab of India's Bihar, Bengal and Orissa, after the death of Nawab Sirajuddaula in 1757 and whom he had betrayed. Jafar was, however, replaced by his son-in-law, Mir Qasim Ali Khan in 1760.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jafar Khan

Birth:

Death:1726

Titled as Murshid Quli Khan, was appointed governor of Bengal by emperor Alamgir in 1704. He founded the City of Murshidabad after his title, died in the reign of Muhammad Shah and was succeeded by his son-in-law Sirajuddaula.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jafar Sharif Emami

Birth:1912

Death:1998

An Iranian politician. Jafar was among the first generation of Iranians to study abroad and imbibe the Western values, which were deemed to form modernisation and industrial development in Iran. He committed to the view that Iran should be in alliance with the West. Jafar ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jaffar Long

Birth:

Death:1857

The Malayan businessman who developed and established the tin mining industry in Perak, Malay.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jaffar Hazrat

Birth:

Death:629

Brother of Hazrat Ali. When the Muslims first migrated to Habsha (Abbysinia), he was elected their leader and was the commander of the Muslim army at the battle of Mota.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jahan Ara Begum

Birth:1614

Death:1680

The daughter of emperor Shahjahan, by Mumtaz Mahal. Celebrated in history as the heroic, the witty, the generous, the elegant, the accomplished and the beautiful princes. She was cured of her burns by an English doctor who asked from the emperor, in reward of his ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jahandar Shah Muhammad Muizzuddin

Birth:1663

Death:1713

The eldest son of king Bahadur Shah and grandson of Emperor Aurangzeb. After the death of his father in 1712, he succeeded him the same year a battle took place with his brother Azim-Us-Shan, in which the later was killed. He was totally ignorant of the ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jahangir Khan

Birth:1963

Death:

Pakistani Squash player. At the age of 17, he won both the British Championship and the World Open Championships in 1981. In 1990 he won the British Open Championship for the 9th time. Jahangir Khan was born in Karachi.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jahangir

Birth:1569

Death:1627

The son of Akbar the Great. He was named Salim, on account of his coming into this world, as blessed by the prayer of Shaikh Salim Christie. He came to the throne of Delhi in 1605, after the death of his father. In 1612 Jahangir permitted the ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jahiz Umar Bin Bahr Bin Mahboob

Birth:c776

Death:864

Author. Jahiz was the author of many books. His Albayan, according to Ibn Khaldun, was one of the four most important books on art and literature in Arabic. Kitab ul Haiyam is a mine of information about Arab proverbs, traditions, superstition and the like. He ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jahm Ibn Safwan

Birth:

Death:746

An extremist Murj'iah (those who postpone). They held the view that no one who once accepted Islam, could be declared a Kafir. Revolt against a Muslim ruler, therefore, could not be justified. This was the opposite view of the Kharjia. The Ummayds who saw them ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jamal Al Din Al Afghani

Birth:1839

Death:1897

An itinerant activist railing against the feebleness and injustices of Oriental despotisms and the immorality of Western imperialism, and trying to forge a Pan-Islamic movement. Al-Afghani was one of the greatest thinker's revivalist's leaders of the modern Muslim world and the founder of Pan-Islamism. "He ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jansher Khan

Birth:1969

Death:

Pakistani Squash player. Jansher won the World Open title in 1987. He lost the title to his fellow countryman Jahangir Khan in 1988, but won it again in 1989 and 1990. Jansher Khan was born in Peshawar.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jarir

Birth:

Death:729

The court poet of Al Hajjaj and a great satirist. Al Farzdaq and Jarir often attacked each other in their satires.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jarir Ibn Atiyah Ibn Al Khatafa

Birth:c650

Death:c729

One of the greatest Arab classical poets of pre-Islamic traditions. Jarir had a rivalry with al Farazdaq, another great poet, which lasted for forty years. The results were collected in Naqqaid. He had another poetical battle with al Akhtal. Jarir was a favourite of the ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Javed Miandad

Birth:1957

Death:

Highest score in Cricket Test history with 8,465 runs.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jawad Salim

Birth:1920

Death:1961

Doyen of the modern art movement in Iraq. Jawad studied in Rome, Paris, and at London's Slade School of Art. His masterpiece Monument of Revolution stretched across Baghdad's Liberation Square and celebrated the Iraqi revolution of 1958. It was a 50 by 8-meter frieze and has been ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jaweni Abul Ma'ali Abdul Malik Imam-ul-harmain

Birth:

Death:1085

Metaphysician. Jaweni was a very celebrated doctor and a metaphysician who was the teacher of Imam Ghazzali. Jaweni was awarded the title of Imam-ul-Hermain by Malik Shah Saljeuki, for being the Imam of both Makkah and Madinah. Jaweni authored several works, amongst which were Aqidat ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jigar Murdabadi

Birth:1890

Death:1960

The poet of love, mysticism and politics A true patriot and a nationalist, Jigar Muradabadi was also the poet of love, mysticism and politics. He depicted the atrocities of the British raj on the Indian people in his verses. He inspired India's independence movement tirelessly. ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jodha Bai

Birth:1542

Death:1622

The daughter of Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, was married to Emperor Akbar in 1585 and became the mother of Emperor Jahangir who was born in 1593.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Johan Abdullah Bagley

Birth:1930

Death:2001

Malaysia's popular journalist, born John Noel Bagley, in Birmingham, England, settled down as Malaysian, died in Kuala Lumpur.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

John Philby

Birth:1885

Death:1960

An English explorer. John joined the Indian Civil Service in 1907 after his education in Cambridge, but retired in 1925 after quarrelling with British policy in Arabia. John became an advisor of King Saud in 1926, and became a Muslim in 1930 and lived in Saudi Arabia till his ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Josh Malihabadi

Birth:1898

Death:1982

An Urdu Poet. Josh dominated the Urdu literary scene from the 1930s to 1980s subsumed under the Progressive Writers' Movement. He was the only Urdu poet to have a literary journal - Saqi - lampooning and satirising him, and the only eminent poet to be ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Joveyni Ata Malik Ala Uddin

Birth:1226

Death:1283

Historian. Joveyni was an Iranian historian who flourished during the Mongol domination of Iran during 1220-1336. He was in the service of Halaku, the grandson of Chenghis Khan. After the fall of Baghdad in 1258, he was appointed governor of Iraq Khuzistan. Joveyni's Tarikh-I-Jehangusha, the most ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jumabek Ibraimovich Ibraimov

Birth:1944

Death:1999

Politician. Jumabek held a number of senior posts including mayor of the capital Bishkek (1993-1995). He was advisor on economic to the president (1996) and representative to People's Assembly. In his last position as Prime minister of Kyrgyzstan, he introduced various measures to combat corruption and ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jamal Abd Al Nasser

Birth:1918

Death:1970

Arab leader who inspired passion. Few Arab leaders have inspired as much passion as Jamal Abd al-Nasser. He nationalised the Suez Canal and used the proceeds to build the High Dam, ending the cycles of flood and drought that had blighted rural life for centuries. ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jaafar Nimeiri

Birth:1930

Death:2009

Sudan's military ruler who remained president from 1969 to 1985. Nimeiri a graduate from the US Army Command College, Kansas in 1966, overthrew the government of Ismail al Azhari in 1969 and became the prime minister and chairman of the revolutionary council. He along with others emulated the secularist ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jalal Al Din Rumi

Birth:1207

Death:1273

A great Sufi mystic poet. Rumi had been an eminent professor of religion and a highly attained mystic who inspired poetry and loved humanity. The memorable event, which had the greatest influence on him, was his meeting with the mystic Shams Tabrez, a friend and ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin / Syed Basheeruddin

john nelson

Birth:16. century

Death:

He is the first English who converted to Islam in records.

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Compiled by:Arzu Yilmaz

Joan Elia

Birth:1931

Death:2002

Urdu poet Joan Elia was a versatile poet in the classical mould and had command over Urdu, Arabic, Persian, English and Hebrew. Joan who received his preliminary education from his father, Allama Shafiq Hasan Elia, a learned man of his time, began composing poetry at ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jamaluddin Hasan Ibn Yusuf Al Hilli

Birth:1250

Death:1325

Theologian. Jamaluddin studied with Nasiruddin Tusi, a noted philosopher of his age and authored Al Bab al Hadi Ashar, Sharh Tajrid al Itiqat, the standard reference books for Asna Ashris (The twelvers). Jamaluddin immigrated to Iran in 1305 and converted Oljeytu the eighth Khan of Iran ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jawahar

Birth:10th century

Death:

The Fatimid general who conquered Egypt in 969 and founded the mosque al Azhar in 972 and the city of al Qahirah which became the capital in 973.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

John Cooper

Birth:1947

Death:1998

A creative scholar, translator and intellectual. John was E. G. Browne Lecturer in Persian Studies at Cambridge. He pioneered work in the study of Shi'i usul al-fiqh using modern semiotics. He taught English in Casablanca, Morocco. There he perfected his French, picked up some Berber ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Junaid

Birth:14th century

Death:

An Iraqi painter of miniatures. Junaid's paintings influenced the Persian style of painting. He was a disciple of Shamsuddin and worked for Sultan Ahmad of the Jalayirld dynasty of Baghdad from 1382 to 1410. He had illustrated Khwaja Kirmamis' Khamsa in 1396.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Jarallah Omar Al Kuhali

Birth:1942

Death:2002

Yemeni socialist leader who spent his life in pursuit of his country's unity. Jarallah a former guerrilla leader was one of Yemen's leading advocates for liberal democracy. He joined the pan-Arab nationalist movement in 1960 and confronted many oppositions. The overthrow of the monarchy in northern ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Johnny Walker

Birth:1924

Death:2003

Comedy star of Bollywood film. Badruddin Jamaluddin Qazi, widely known as Johnny Walker, with his highly mobile face, pencil-thin moustache, squeaky voice and uncanny sense of timing acted in nearly 300 films, tickling audiences with brilliant performances that remain unequalled today in Bollywood. Johnny Walker first ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jameel Mazhari

Birth:1904

Death:1980

Urdu poet, altruism at its best. Jameel Mazhari was a versatile Urdu poet absorbed in the themes of Allah, Man and the Universe - dejected as a lover, fiery as a revolutionary, ecstatic as a devotee and indomitable as a worshipper. 'Mathnavi Ab-o-Sarab' (The Masnavi ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jafar Panahi

Birth:1961

Death:

Iranian film director In his newest movie 'Offside' (2006) Panahi continues his cinematic assault against Iran's social ills by highlighting the absurdity of a rule that doesn't allow women to go to attend football matches. In his 1995 feature debut 'The White Balloon', a little girl out ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

John Yehya En Nasr Parkinson

Birth:1874

Death:1918

Scottish poet and author John's hankering after knowledge led him to fields of thought. He collected more than four hundred works by great writers on various scientific and philosophical subjects. His studies of the different systems of philosophy led him to study Islam and its ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / John Thompson

Jasim Al Sagar

Birth:1918

Death:2006

An Arab nationalist and campaigner of political freedom and human rights One of Kuwait's most respected politician, al-Sagar was an Arab nationalist who devoted his life to advancing political freedom and human rights that sometime clashed with the ruling al-Sabah dynasty. He focussed on Kuwait's ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Javed Ahmed Ghamidi

Birth:1951

Death:

Pakistani scholar. One of Pakistan's well-known intellectuals Javed Ahmed Ghamidi is a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence and exegesis and is the founder of al-Mawrid Institute of Islamic Sciences. Ghamidi has been the founder or editor of several Islamic journals and has lectured widely on Islamic ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

John Butt

Birth:1950

Death:

Holy broadcaster Started single-handedly a groundbreaking radio programme called 'Across the Border' John Butt broadcasts over a network of independent stations to listeners in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A public schoolboy and professional broadcaster, a convert to Islam and respected cleric, John Butt has brought his ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jaleh Mohajer Esfahani

Birth:1921

Death:2007

Iranian poet of hope One of the most prolific and active voices in Iranian literature Jaleh Mohajer-Esfahani won respect for her heartfelt but controlled verses on exile, happiness and hope. Her verses are covered by love and the joy of life in the centre stage ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jennifer Musa

Birth:1917

Death:2008

She dedicated her life to a tribe in Baluchistan Known as 'Mummy Jennifer' who married the scion of a noble Pathan family that played a key role in bringing the oil-rich province of Baluchistan into Pakistan after its creation in 1947. She founded an ice factory, ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jaffar Zaheer

Birth:1923

Death:2008

Air Marshal of Indian Air Force Throughout in his career, steeliness and principled stand was the hallmark of Jaffar Zaheer Air Marshal of Indian Air Force. While he headed India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Zaheer refused to withdraw the case against Indira Gandhi's unruly ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jaweed Al Ghussein

Birth:1930

Death:2008

Palestinian philanthropist and educationist In 1964, having moved his family to Britain, al-Ghussein set up, with an American consortium, an engineering and construction company, Cordoba, in Abu Dhabi. The company became a major player in establishing the infrastructure of the UAE - from the water pipeline ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jabir Herbert Muhammad

Birth:1929

Death:2008

He managed the American athlete who 'literally changed the world of sports forever.' The man who became Muhammad Ali's boxing manager after Ali's conversion to Islam was Jabir Herbert Muhammad. The morning after winning the crown by knocking out Sonny Liston in 1964, then known ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Javad Nurbakhsh

Birth:1926

Death:2008

Iranian Sufi and a noted psychiatrist. A Sufi who was also a noted psychiatrist, author and medical clinic director, Javad Nurbakhsh, established many khanaqahs in many parts of Iran and across the wide world. As the head of psychiatry department at Tehran University, Javad also ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jamal Al Din Al Qasimi

Birth:1866

Death:1914

A leading modernist A leading modernist Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, wrote more than 2000 works on Islamic law, theology, exegesis or Arab history. He aimed at eliminating the rivalries between schools of thought and diversity in Islamic sensibilities and proving the Islamic teachings being rational. Based at ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Arslan Akhtar

Jamalul Kiram III

Birth:1938

Death:2013

Self-proclaimed Sultan A descendant of the of the Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram led a quixotic military effort to regain part of the island of Borneo for his family. In February 2013, Jamalul Kiram directed a younger brother to lead several hundred fighters in an armed ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Joko Widodo

Birth:1961

Death:

Indonesia's president who styles himself a man of the people. Universally known as Jokowi, Joko Widodo former governor of Indonesia's capital Jakarta became the seventh president, in 2014, of the world's third-largest democracy - a nation of far flung archipelago of 250 million people, 13,466 islands, three time ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Jamil Ahmad

Birth:1932

Death:2014

Pakistani novelist Having served as a civil servant in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions Jamil Ahmad's adventure inspired him to write a novel Wandering Falcon that became a literary sensation. The novel, published in 2011, follow a wandering orphan as he travels 'the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan