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

Ustad Bismillah Khan

Birth:1916

Death:2006

Shehnai maestro of south Asia. The celebrated Ustad of the Indian sub-continent who lifted the shehnai, a unique instrument - from the Persian shah (king), and nai (flute) - from the dancing parlours to its rightful place in the music history - truly basassar (immaculate). ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Ubaidullah Bin Masud

Birth:

Death:1349

The author of a commentary on the Wiqaya a work on Jurisprudence and Nikaya.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ubaidullah Ibn Zayad

Birth:

Death:686

Yazid appointed him governor of Kufa in 679. His troops surrounded Hazrat Hassain at Karbala and killed him, his relatives and friends in 680. Ibrahim the commander of Al-Mukhtar, the governor of Kufa killed him, when in 686 he was sent by Abdul Malik to plunder that city.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ubaidullah Sindhi

Birth:1872

Death:1944

An Indian religious leader. A pan-Islamic thinker who prepared a socialist constitution for India on Russian pattern.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ubayd Allah Al Mehdi

Birth:909

Death:934

The first Caliph of the Fatmid dynasty of north Africa (909-931). He was the grandson of ibn Maimun al Qaddah, the founder of Ismaili sect.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ulugh Beg

Birth:1394

Death:1449

The one who made Samarkand famous. Ulugh Beg, a Tartar prince and ruler of Turkestan under whose rule the Timurid dynasty reached its cultural summit. He was an exceptional astronomer and mathematician of his time. Ulugh Beg made Samarkand famous as one of the leading ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umm Kulthum

Birth:1904

Death:1975

The Grand Lady of Arab singing, the Nightingale of the Nile, was the greatest singer to have emerged from the Arab world. Titles and superlatives were invented for Um Kalsum ceaselessly during her life- time, and in death from Morocco to Iran. In Egypt, the ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umar Farouq Ibn Al Khattab

Birth:c583

Death:644

Islam's second caliph, who was credited with extensive Arab conquests. Hazrat Umar's dramatic conversion to Islam in 615 was regarded as the turning point of Islam. He gave his daughter Hafsa to the Prophet (PBUH) as a bride. But his true mettle was proved when he ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umari Al Shihabuddin Ahmad Ibn Fazlullah

Birth:1301

Death:1349

A Syrian scholar and writer. Umari's father was the Katib of the Mamluk Empire. He was the author of Tarif Bial-Mustalah-Ash-Sharif, a study of the principles of Mamluk administration and Masalik al Absar fi Mamalik al Amsar an encyclopaedic work relating to administrative practices.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ummatul Wahab

Birth:1918

Death:1998

Educationist, writer, publisher and one of the pioneering figures in the women's literary and Islamic movement in Pakistan. Wahab well known by her pen name, Umme Zubair, established a women's literary society, Hareem-e-Adab and later helped set up first women's publishing house, Idara-e-Batool in Pakistan. ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Ummaya Ayub Khan

Birth:1930

Death:

A Pakistani-American neurosurgeon. Khan is the Chief of Applied Neuroscience Research in USA and a consultant and advisor on many national and international bodies including International Brain Research. Khan has published extensively and was awarded Sitari-i-Imtiaz (Star of achievement) by the government of Pakistan in 1982.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Uqba Ibn Nafi

Birth:622

Death:683

The Muslim general, nephew of Amr ibn al-As, sent by Muawiya to conquer north Africa. He founded the city of al Qairawan, and the great mosque was dedicated to him. Uqbah was said to have advanced until the waves of the Atlantic stopped his horse.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Urfi

Birth:1555

Death:1591

A Persian poet. His name was Jamal Uddin, but was better known by his Takhalus, Urfi. He came to India and was introduced to Akbar the great by Rahim Khan Khana. He was known for his Ghazals and Qasidas. He died at Lahore but was ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Usman

Birth:

Death:1327

The first Sultan of the Turks. His grandfather was a native of Balkh, which he had to leave after the invasion of Changiz Khan in 1414. Usman took Brusa from the Greek emperor and laid the foundation of the empire called after him Ottoman or Usmania. ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Usman I

Birth:1259

Death:1326

The founder of the Ottoman dynasty. Son of Orthogrul, chief of a small tribe of Oguzian Turks, Osman succeeded his father in 1288. And on the destruction of Iconium in 1299 by the Mongols, he captured part of Bithnyia. Then he attacked the Byzantine with success. In 1301 ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Usman Ali Khan

Birth:1886

Death:1967

The seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, India. Usman Ali Khan, who succeeded his father, Mahboob Ali Khan, in 1911, was once the richest man in the world. He ruled over a state in India, which was the size of Italy, from 1911 to 1948. Despite the British colonial rule ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Usman Dinga

Birth:1840

Death:1926

The Sudanese leader of the Mahdist revolt which broke out in 1881. When Osman heard of the advent of Muhammad Ahmad al Mahdi, he became his follower in 1883. He was given the task of propagating in his Beja tribe. With the help of his tribesman he ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Birth:1922

Death:2009

Indian Sarod player, composer and musician. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan under the training of his father became the court musician of Maharaja of Jodhpur. Smaller than the sitar, the sarod has an unfretted fingerboard made of metal. Of the 25 metal strings, 10 are played, the rest ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ustad Jaffar Hussain Khan

Birth:1926

Death:1998

India's well-known qawwali singer. Ustad Jaffar won laurels at the international Sufi festival in Europe (1981), the Festival of India in France (1985) and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1986).

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Uzun Hasan

Birth:c1420

Death:1478

The ruler of Turkman dynasty from 1453. He married Catherine, daughter of the Christian emperor of (Trebizond) - Anatolia to secure his western borders. He had also diplomatic ties with Venice, Muscovy, Burgundy, Poland and Egypt. He annexed Azerbaijan and Iraq (1467) and by 1469 occupied the whole ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Usman dan Fodio

Birth:1750

Death:1817

Muslim religious leader and founder of the Sokoto Caliphate in what is now northern Nigeria. A Fulani born in the Hausa state of Gobir, Usman dan Fodio studied the Koran with his father, an eminent scholar, then moved from place to place to study with ...

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Compiled by:Haidar Hadi

Ustad Mansur

Birth:17th century

Death:

A leading painter at the court of Jahangir, the Moghul king of India. Mansur was famous for his paintings of animals, birds and natural life studies. On a trip to Kashmir, Jahangir ordered him to paint varieties of flowers, stating in his memoirs that the ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umar Al Khalwati

Birth:

Death:

The founder of the Khalwatiya order in Iran, which spread, to Turkey and Egypt.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umar Al Mutawakil

Birth:1068

Death:1094

The ruler of the Aftasid dynasty of Spain. Umar tried to annex Toledo in 1080, which was held by another Muslim ruler. When Alfonso took Toledo in 1085, Umar along with other Muslim rulers of Spain appealed to the Almoravid of Morocco for assistance. Almoravids defeated Alfonso ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz

Birth:682

Death:720

He was an Ummayyad caliph known for his piety and most respected. His father Abdul Aziz was related to Hazrat Umar. He was appointed governor of the Hejaz in 706. During the time of his accession, there was discontent among the Muslims about the Ummayads for ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Umaru Al Haji

Birth:20th century

Death:

One of the best known poets of Nigeria. Umaru's Zuan Nasara (1903) described the arrival of the Christians, and about the British occupation of his country and its disastrous effects. He used to write in Hausa written in Arabic script. Umaru followed the traditions of Usman ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ummaya

Birth:6th century

Death:

The first great Muslim dynasty was named after him. The Quraish tribe was divided in two clans: Banu Hashim and Banu Ummaya of Makkah. Banu Ummaya had resisted Islam till 627. In the first civil war (fitnah 656-661) the struggle for the caliphate following the murder ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ustad Ahmad Ma'mar Lahori

Birth:

Death:

One of the architects of the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan, determined that no other ruler should ever copy his glorious masterpiece, Taj Mahal, near Delhi, got 20,000 workers involved in the project. Workers, many of them, were brought from Iran and Central Asia. Some of the ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ustad Hamid Lahori

Birth:

Death:

The brother of Ahmad Ma'mar and co-architect of the Taj Mahal

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Uwais I

Birth:1323

Death:1474

The son of Hasan Buzurg, the founder of the Jalayrid dynasty of Iran and Azerbaijan. Uwais enlarged the Jalayrid's domains by seizing Azerbaijan in 1360 and Fares 1361-64. The Jalayrid dynasty lasted till 1432.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Uzbek

Birth:15th century

Death:

Uzbekistan is named after him. He was chief of a Turkish people who settled and occupied Transoxania before it came under Russian rule in the 19th century. Uzbeks constitute about majority of the population of Uzbekistan.

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan / Ghulam Mohiuddin

Ulfat Idilbi

Birth:1912

Death:2007

Syria's one of loved writers of fiction and a feminist. Born into an elitist family and profoundly affected, as a teenager, by the Syrian revolt against the French Mandate rule in the 1920s, Ulfat's strong messages were in harmony with the Arab nationalist secular Syrian ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua

Birth:1951

Death:2010

Nigeria's reformist president The son of an aristocratic political dynasty of north of Nigeria Yar'Adua embraced left-wing politics in his 20s. Circumstances as much as personal ambition saw him rise to governor, in 1999, of his native Katsina state. He was elected president in April 2007 few ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Ustad Sultan Khan

Birth:1940

Death:2011

Music maestro Renowned Indian classical musician, Ustad Sultan Khan, carried forward the tradition of the instrument called a sarangi. The soulful voice behind hits like 'Piya basanti' and 'Albela sajan aayo re' was that of no other but Ustad Sultan Khan. Hailed from a family ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan

Umaru Dikko

Birth:1936

Death:2014

Nigerian politician Disguised in a priest's cassock Alhaji Umaru Dikko, the Minister of Transport of Nigeria, fled three days after the armed coup in December 1983, for his fear of life and arrived in Britain. In the summer of 1984 Umaru Dikko was seized outside his London's ...

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Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan