The Most Famous
HISTORIANS from Saudi Arabia
This page contains a list of the greatest Saudi Arabian Historians. The pantheon dataset contains 561 Historians, 3 of which were born in Saudi Arabia. This makes Saudi Arabia the birth place of the 29th most number of Historians behind Georgia, and Armenia.
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Saudi Arabian Historians of all time. This list of famous Saudi Arabian Historians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.
1. Ibn Ishaq (704 - 767)
With an HPI of 73.22, Ibn Ishaq is the most famous Saudi Arabian Historian. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages on wikipedia.
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (Arabic: أَبُو عَبْدُ ٱلله مُحَمَّد ٱبْن إِسْحَاق ٱبْن يَسَار ٱلْمُطَّلِبيّ, romanized: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʾIsḥāq ibn Yasār al-Muṭṭalibī; c. 80 AH (699/700CE)– 151 AH (768/769CE), known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His biography is known as the Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, and it has mainly survived through several recensions.
2. Al-Waqidi (747 - 823)
With an HPI of 65.88, Al-Waqidi is the 2nd most famous Saudi Arabian Historian. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Waqid al-Aslami (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عمر بن واقد الاسلمي, romanized: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Wāqid al-Aslamī) (c. 130 – 207 AH; commonly referred to as al-Waqidi (Arabic: الواقدي; c. 747 – 823 AD) was an early Arab Muslim historian and biographer of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, specializing in his military campaigns. His surname is derived from his grandfather's name Waqid, and thus he became famous as al-Imam al-Waqidi. He served as a judge (qadi) for the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun. Several of al-Waqidi's works are known through his scribe and student (in the field of the al-maghazi genre), Ibn Sa'd.
3. Aban ibn Uthman (641 - 723)
With an HPI of 60.82, Aban ibn Uthman is the 3rd most famous Saudi Arabian Historian. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Abu Sa'id Aban ibn Uthman ibn Affan al-Umawi (Arabic: أَبُو سَعِيد أَبَان بْنُ عُثْمَانُ بْنُ عَفَّان الأُمَوِيّ, romanized: Abū Saʿīd Abān ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān al-Umawī; died 105 AH/723 CE) was a Muslim historian and traditionalist. He also served a seven-year stint as governor of Medina in 695–702, during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705).
4. Hatoon al-Fassi (b. 1964)
With an HPI of 45.26, Hatoon al-Fassi is the 4th most famous Saudi Arabian Historian. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi (هتون أجواد الفاسي) is a Saudi Arabian historian, author and women's rights activist. She is an associate professor of women's history at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, where she has been employed since 1989 and at the International Affairs Department at Qatar University. At the university, al-Fassi carries out historical research. Based on her research into the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdom of Nabataea, al-Fassi claims that women in the ancient kingdom had more independence than women in modern Saudi Arabia. Al-Fassi was active in women's right to vote campaigns for the 2005 and 2011 municipal elections and was active in a similar campaign for the 2015 municipal elections. She was arrested in late June 2018 as part of a crackdown on women's rights activists and was released almost a year later, in early May 2019. In November 2018, while still in jail, she was awarded the MESA Academic Freedom Award for 2018.
People
Pantheon has 4 people classified as Saudi Arabian historians born between 641 and 1964. Of these 4, 1 (25.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Saudi Arabian historians include Hatoon al-Fassi. The most famous deceased Saudi Arabian historians include Ibn Ishaq, Al-Waqidi, and Aban ibn Uthman. As of April 2024, 1 new Saudi Arabian historians have been added to Pantheon including Hatoon al-Fassi.
