MILITARY PERSONNELS from Iraq

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Iraqi Military Personnels of all time. This list of famous Iraqi Military Personnels is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Ahmad Sanjar (1100 - )

With an HPI of 71.08, Ahmad Sanjar is the most famous Iraqi Military Personnel.  Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages on wikipedia.

Ahmad Sanjar (Persian: احمد سنجر; full name: Muizz ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah Abul-Harith Ahmad Sanjar ibn Malik-Shah) (6 November 1086 – 8 May 1157) was the Seljuq ruler of Khorasan from 1097 until 1118, when he became the Sultan of the Seljuq Empire, which he ruled until his death in 1157.

2. Qutayba ibn Muslim (668 - 715)

With an HPI of 63.19, Qutayba ibn Muslim is the 2nd most famous Iraqi Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Abū Ḥafṣ Qutayba ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ Muslim ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī (Arabic: أبو حفص قتيبة بن أبي صالح مسلم بن عمرو الباهلي; 669–715/6) was an Arab commander of the Umayyad Caliphate who became governor of Khurasan and distinguished himself in the conquest of Transoxiana during the reign of al-Walid I (705–715). A capable soldier and administrator, he consolidated Muslim rule in the area and expanded the Caliphate's border to include most of Transoxiana. From 705 to c. 710, he consolidated Muslim control over the native principalities of Tokharistan and conquered the principality of Bukhara, while in 710–712 he conquered Khwarizm and completed the conquest of Sogdiana with the capture of Samarkand. The latter opened the road to the Jaxartes valley, and during the last years of his life Qutayba led annual campaigns there, extending Muslim control up to the Fergana Valley and parts of Chinese Turkestan. To increase his strained manpower, Qutayba initiated the wide-scale levy of native Khurasani and Transoxianian soldiers who fought alongside the Arab Muslim troops. Following Walid's death, Qutayba, insecure of his position under the new regime, rebelled but failed to secure the support of his army, and was killed. Most of his conquests in Transoxiana were lost in the years after his death; only in the 740s was the Muslim position restored to the line reached by Qutayba, and only after the Battle of Talas in 751 did the region come solidly under Muslim control.

3. Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad (648 - 685)

With an HPI of 61.26, Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad is the 3rd most famous Iraqi Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad (Arabic: عُبَيْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ, romanized: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād) was the Umayyad governor of Basra, Kufa and Khurasan during the reigns of caliphs Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and Yazid I (r. 680–683), and the leading general of the Umayyad army under caliphs Marwan I (r. 684–685) and Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705). He virtually inherited the governorships from his father Ziyad ibn Abihi after the latter's death in 673. During Ubayd Allah's governorship, he suppressed Kharijite and Alid revolts. In the ensuing Battle of Karbala in 680, Husayn ibn Ali and his small retinue were slain by Ubayd Allah's troops, shocking many in the Muslim community. Ubayd Allah is primarily remembered for his role in the killings of members of Ali ibn Abi Talib's family and he has become infamous in Muslim tradition. Ubayd Allah was ultimately evicted from Iraq by the Arab tribal nobility amid the revolt of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. He made it to Syria where he persuaded Marwan I to seek the caliphate and helped galvanize support for the flailing Umayyads. Afterward, he fought at the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684 against pro-Zubayrid tribes and helped reconstitute the Umayyad army. With this army he struggled against rebel Qaysi tribes in the Jazira before advancing against the Alids and Zubayrids of Iraq. However, he was slain and his forces routed at the Battle of Khazir by Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar, the commander of the pro-Alid al-Mukhtar of Kufa.

4. Mahmud Shevket Pasha (1856 - 1913)

With an HPI of 57.25, Mahmud Shevket Pasha is the 4th most famous Iraqi Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Mahmud Shevket Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: محمود شوكت پاشا, 1856 – 11 June 1913) was an Ottoman generalissimo and statesman, who was an important political figure during the Second Constitutional Era. During the 31 March Incident, Shevket Pasha and the Committee of Union and Progress overthrew Abdul Hamid II after an anti-Constitutionalist uprising in Constantinople. He played the role of a power broker after the crisis, balancing the various factions of the Young Turks and the army. As War Minister he played a leading role in military reform and the establishment of Air Divisions. Shevket Pasha became Grand Vizier during the First Balkan War in the aftermath of the 1913 coup d'état, from 23 January 1913 until his death by assassination.

5. Surena (-84 - -52)

With an HPI of 56.61, Surena is the 5th most famous Iraqi Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Surena or Suren, also known as Rustaham Suren (died 53 or 52 BC) was a Parthian spahbed ("general" or "commander") during the first century BC. He was the leader of the House of Suren and was best known for defeating the Romans in the Battle of Carrhae. Under his command, the Parthians decisively defeated a numerically superior Roman invasion force under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus. It is commonly seen as one of the earliest and most important battles between the Roman and Parthian empires and one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history. "Surena" remains popular as a name in Iran and it is sometimes pronounced as “Sorena”. "Surena" is the Greek and Latin form of Sûrên or Sūrēn. As "Suren", the name remains common in Armenia. Suren means "the heroic one, Avestan sūra (strong, exalted)."

6. Abu Ali al-Anbari (1957 - 2016)

With an HPI of 46.92, Abu Ali al-Anbari is the 6th most famous Iraqi Military Personnel.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli (Arabic: عَبْدُ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ مُصْطَفَى ٱلْقَادُولِيِّ, romanized: ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān Musṭafā al-Qādūlī; 1957 or 1959 – March 2016), better known as Abu Ali al-Anbari (Arabic: أَبُو عَليِّ ٱلْأَنْبَارِيِّ, romanized: ʾAbū ʿAlī al-ʾAnbārī), was the governor for territories held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. Considered the ISIL second-in-command (along with Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, his counterpart in Iraq), he was viewed as a potential successor of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. On 14 May 2014, he was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S Treasury Department, and on 5 May 2015, the U.S. Department of State announced a reward of up to US$7 million for information leading to his capture or death. On 25 March 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense announced al-Qaduli’s death as a result of a US Special Operations helicopter gunship raid conducted earlier that week along the Iraq-Syria border.