The Most Famous

MILITARY PERSONNELS from Iran

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This page contains a list of the greatest Iranian Military Personnels. The pantheon dataset contains 2,058 Military Personnels, 12 of which were born in Iran. This makes Iran the birth place of the 20th most number of Military Personnels behind Finland, and Serbia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Iranian Military Personnels of all time. This list of famous Iranian Military Personnels is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Iranian Military Personnels.

Photo of Tughril

1. Tughril (990 - 1063)

With an HPI of 77.61, Tughril is the most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 50 different languages on wikipedia.

Abu Talib Muhammad Tughril ibn Mika'il (Persian: ابوطالبْ محمد طغرل بن میکائیل), better known as Tughril (طغرل / طغریل; also spelled Toghril / Tughrul), was a Turkoman chieftain, who founded the Seljuk Empire, ruling from 1037 to 1063. Tughril united many Turkoman warriors of the Central Asian steppes into a confederacy of tribes and led them in conquest of Khorasan and eastern Persia. He would later establish the Seljuk Sultanate after conquering Persia and taking the Abbasid capital of Baghdad from the Buyids in 1055. Tughril relegated the Abbasid Caliphs to state figureheads and took command of the caliphate's armies in military offensives against the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimids in an effort to expand his empire's borders and unite the Islamic world. Before the advent of the Seljuks, Persia was divided between several warring local powers, such as the Buyids, Kakuyids and Ghaznavids. As a result, it suffered from continuous war and destruction. However, under Tughril peace and prosperity were brought to the country and to Mesopotamia, a transition that was further reinforced due to the Seljuks' assimilation to Iranian-Muslim culture.

Photo of Qasem Soleimani

2. Qasem Soleimani (1957 - 2020)

With an HPI of 69.10, Qasem Soleimani is the 2nd most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 82 different languages.

Qasem Soleimani (Persian: قاسم سلیمانی, romanized: Qâsem Soleymâni; 11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020) was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination by the United States in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations, and played a key role in the Syrian Civil War through securing Russian intervention. He was described as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East" and a "genius of asymmetric warfare." Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said Soleimani's strategies had "personally tightened a noose around Israel's neck." In his later years, he was considered by some analysts to be the right-hand man of the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and the second-most powerful person in Iran behind Khamenei. For attacks orchestrated or attempted against Americans and other targets abroad, Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union, and was designated as a terrorist by the United States in 2005. Soleimani was assassinated by a targeted drone strike on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq. Iranian government officials publicly mourned Soleimani's death and launched missiles against U.S. military bases in Iraq, wounding 110 American troops. Iranian outlets subsequently represented Soleimani as a national hero.

Photo of Bahram Chobin

3. Bahram Chobin (600 - 592)

With an HPI of 67.87, Bahram Chobin is the 3rd most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 41 different languages.

Bahrām Chōbīn (Persian: بهرام چوبین) or Wahrām Chōbēn (Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭; died 591), also known by his epithet Mehrbandak ("servant of Mithra"), was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as Bahram VI (r. 590–591). Son of general Bahram Gushnasp and hailing from the noble House of Mihran, Bahram began his career as the governor of Ray, and was promoted to the army chief (spahbed) of the northwestern portions of the empire after capturing the Byzantine stronghold of Dara, fighting in the war of 572–591. After a massive Hephthalite-Turkic invasion of the eastern Sasanian domains in 588, he was appointed as the spahbed in Khorasan, beginning a campaign that ended in a decisive Iranian victory. Bahram earned an elevated position in Iran due to his noble descent, character, skills, and accomplishments. The Sasanian king (shah) Hormizd IV (r. 579–590) was already distrustful of Bahram and stripped the increasingly popular general of his commands. Bahram began a rebellion aiming to reestablish the "more rightful" Arsacid Empire, identifying himself with the promised savior of the Zoroastrian faith. Before he had reached the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, Hormizd was assassinated in support of his son, Khosrow II, by another anti-Hormizd faction led by the two Ispahbudhan brothers, Vistahm and Vinduyih. As Bahram captured Ctesiphon, Khosrow II fled to the Byzantine Empire, with the assistance of which he launched a campaign against Bahram. Bahram's outnumbered forces were defeated, but he managed to flee to the Western Turkic Khaganate where he was well received. He was assassinated shortly thereafter at the instigation of Khosrow II, who was then the shah. Bahram Chobin's legacy survived even after the Arab conquest of Iran among Iranian nationalists, as well as in Persian literature.

Photo of Datis

4. Datis (600 BC - 490 BC)

With an HPI of 66.69, Datis is the 4th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Datis or Datus (Greek: Δάτης, Old Iranian: *Dātiya-, Achaemenid Elamite: Da-ti-ya) was a Median noble and admiral who served the Persian Empire during the reign of Darius the Great (522–486 BC). He is known for his role in leading the Persian amphibious expedition against Greece in 490 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars. Along with Darius's nephew Artaphernes, he was tasked with subduing Eretria and Athens, succeeding the previously defeated Mardonius. While some later sources claim Datis died during the Battle of Marathon (490), this is not corroborated by other evidence. His later career is largely unknown except that his sons served as cavalry leaders under Xerxes I (486–465 BC). Datis was familiar with Greek affairs, maintained connections with Greek officials, respected Greek deities, and even attempted to speak Greek.

Photo of Hossein Salami

5. Hossein Salami (1960 - 2025)

With an HPI of 65.92, Hossein Salami is the 5th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Hossein Salami (Persian: حسین سلامی;‎ 1960 – 13 June 2025) was an Iranian military officer who served as the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from 2019 until 2025 when he was killed by an Israeli airstrike during the Iran–Israel war. Salami joined the IRGC during the Iran–Iraq War in 1980, when he was a college student. He rose through the ranks, becoming deputy commander. On 21 April 2019, the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, appointed him as the new Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, replacing major general Mohammad Ali Jafari. Salami stood out among the commanders of the IRGC for his fiery and aggressive speeches targeting the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

Photo of Harpagus

6. Harpagus (700 BC - 600 BC)

With an HPI of 65.50, Harpagus is the 6th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Harpagus, also known as Harpagos (Ancient Greek Ἅρπαγος; Akkadian: Arbaku), was a Median general during the 6th century BC, credited by Herodotus as having put Cyrus the Great on the throne through his defection during the Battle of Pasargadae.

Photo of Esmail Ghaani

7. Esmail Ghaani (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 62.68, Esmail Ghaani is the 7th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Esmail Qaani (also rendered as Ismail Qaani; Persian: اسماعیل قاآنی, romanized: Esmāʾil Qāʾānī;‎ 8 August 1957) is an Iranian brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who serves as the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, an elite special operations force responsible for extraterritorial operations. Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as Quds Force commander after Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020.

Photo of Mohammad Ali Jafari

8. Mohammad Ali Jafari (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 59.33, Mohammad Ali Jafari is the 8th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari (Persian: محمد علی جعفری, born 1 September 1957, also known as Aziz Jafari and Ali Jafari) is a retired Iranian military officer who was the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from 2007 to 2019. He was appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on 1 September 2007, succeeding Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi. According to a 2 September 2007 report by Radio Free Europe, Radio Farda, Jafari was close to the conservative subfaction, which included Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council and former commander of the IRGC and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former IRGC member and the mayor of Tehran. The replacement of Safavi was thought to be a move to strengthen the conservative faction as a counterweight to the radicalizers around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to whom Safavi was close. Jafari was seen as a tactician, organizer, and 'technical' military man, according to Radio Free Europe. The EU's official journal said the three Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, Jafari, General Qasem Soleimani, and the Guard's deputy commander for intelligence, Hossein Taeb, were subject to sanctions for providing equipment and support to Syrian protesters.

Photo of Ahmad Vahidi

9. Ahmad Vahidi (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 57.51, Ahmad Vahidi is the 9th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Ahmad Shahcheraghi (Persian: احمد شاهچراغی, born 27 June 1958), better known as Ahmad Vahidi (Persian: احمد وحیدی), is an Iranian military commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and former Iranian Minister of Interior from 2021 to 2024. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council. Interpol has issued a red notice for the his arrest in connection with the 1994 AMIA bombing. In 1988, he was appointed commander of the extraterritorial special forces of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force, which specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. He was the minister of defense under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 3 September 2009 until 15 August 2013. Vahidi was president of the Supreme National Defense University from August 2016 to 2021.

Photo of Jalil Zandi

10. Jalil Zandi (1951 - 2001)

With an HPI of 55.55, Jalil Zandi is the 10th most famous Iranian Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Jalil Zandi (Persian: جلیل زندی; 1951–2001) was a fighter pilot in the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) who served during all of the Iran–Iraq War. His combat record qualifies him as one of the most successful pilots of that conflict in air-to-air combat, as well as one of the most successful Iranian aces ever. It also made him the most successful pilot in the history of the F-14 Tomcat.

People

Pantheon has 12 people classified as Iranian military personnels born between 700 BC and 1962. Of these 12, 3 (25.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Iranian military personnels include Esmail Ghaani, Mohammad Ali Jafari, and Ahmad Vahidi. The most famous deceased Iranian military personnels include Tughril, Qasem Soleimani, and Bahram Chobin. As of April 2024, 12 new Iranian military personnels have been added to Pantheon including Tughril, Qasem Soleimani, and Bahram Chobin.

Living Iranian Military Personnels

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Deceased Iranian Military Personnels

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Newly Added Iranian Military Personnels (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Military Personnels were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Military Personnels since 1700.