Profiles

Elizabeth was also the first-ever British Monarch to see the platinum jubilee, honouring her 70 years on the throne.

Boris Johnson, born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, worked as a journalist before moving into politics. Born in 1964 in New York City, Johnson received his education at Eton...

Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971 in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. He received home-schooling, as well as some correspondence courses. His exceptional ability of cracking computer codes landed...

Veteran politician, Nabih Berri, has been re-elected Lebanon's Parliament Speaker for the seventh time in a row, holding on to his record as the longest-serving head of a legislative...

After a charitable march calling him the "leader of humanity," the UAE announced, on Friday, the death of its President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, at the age...

The late Lebanese artist Etel Adnan once said that, "We are used to living in a world of 'either, or', but we are complex beings, multiple beings, diverse beings."...

Algeria's longest reigning president Abdelaziz Bouteflika will be remembered as the man who helped Algeria transition from a brutal decade-long war, and reshaped the country's international standing after years...

An Islamic scholar turned freedom fighter, Omar Al-Mukhtar is best known for leading an armed revolution and guerrilla campaign against Italian colonisers for the last two decades of his...

Before the emergence of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in 1982, the country's most charismatic and prominent Shia Muslim leader during the preceding two decades was arguably Sayyid Musa Al-Sadr. He...

For several years, Nasser Al-Qudwa was a familiar face defending the Palestinian cause as the former envoy to the UN. It was not strange that 68-year-old Al-Qudwa was elected...

His disillusion with Israel reportedly began when he toured the country in the 1980s for research purposes.

Kahlil Gibran is regarded as the third-best-selling poet of all time after Lao Tzu and William Shakespeare, largely because of his book The Prophet. First published in 1923 it...

According to most accounts, Taha Hussein, one of Egypt's most esteemed writers and intellectuals and a giant in modern Arabic literature, was born on 14 November, 1889, in the...

I first came across Zubair Pasha while researching the life of AbdulRasul Kashmiri, a devoted supporter of Ottoman causes,  born in Srinagar as his name implies, who spent the...

On 19 May, 1935, Thomas Edward Lawrence passed away following a week of remaining in a coma caused by a motorcycle crash in Dorset, England. The British Arabist, linguist,...

Iraq's last princess dies aged 100. Princess Badiya bint Ali was born in Damascus in 1920. Her father King Ali bin Al-Hussein briefly ruled the Hejaz kingdom in western Arabia and held the title of Grand Sharif of Makkah

Algerian singer Idir died in Paris on Saturday night at the age of 70. He was a leading figure of Algerian music and with him the memory of Algerian...

On 4 May last year, an Emirati woman died in Abu Dhabi's Tawam Hospital. Her name was Alia Abdulnoor. She died chained to a bed in a windowless room...

Nizar Qabbani is arguably the most popular and widely read poet in the Arab world, renowned particularly for his poems on themes such as religion, love and femininity, which...

Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut was a renowned Muslim scholar, reformer and rector of the esteemed Al-Azhar University in Cairo who was notable for seeking to bridge the gap in the...

Palestinian activist and novelist was murdered in Beirut by a bomb planted in his car by Israel's Mossad spy agency on 8 July 1972. He was 36 years old....

It was at a retrial for colluding with Hamas yesterday that the Brotherhood leader collapsed in his sound proof box and was transferred to hospital

'Either Algeria remains Algeria of the French, or becomes Algeria of the Muslims,' says voice of forgotten youth, dead at 88

Here are the ten new Knesset members who will be fighting for Palestinian citizens of Israel in the upcoming parliament.

British comedian and champion of Palestinian rights Jeremy Hardy has died of cancer aged 57. Born in England in 1961, the BBC radio star made his name on the...

Although his detractors paint him as an extremist, Egyptian-born Dr Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is, in fact, a moderate scholar whose flexible approach to Islamic Law has actually pitched him...

Jamal, a leading journalist and columnist on the MENA, and an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime, was killed on 2 October at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul

As Israelis celebrate 70 years since the Jewish state was established, Palestinians all over the world mark 70 years since the mass expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians.

Twenty-three-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer that was preparing to demolish a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip in 2003. Corrie has since become...

Ahmed Ben Bella's intelligence, ambition and love of his country marked him as a natural leader. Born on 25 December 1918 in the Algerian town of Marnia to Moroccan...

On 4 December 2017 Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed by the Iranian-backed Houthi armed group at the age of 75. Saleh led Yemen with all its complexities and changing...

Mohamed Mahdi Othman Akef was born the same year the Muslim Brotherhood was founded – 1928. He was born in Kafr Ewad al-Sinita, one of the villages on the...