Khaled al-Asaad
1932 - 2015
HPI 71.7835 languages
Khaled al-asaad is a Syrian architect who was killed by ISIS in 2017. He was most famous for designing the Citadel of Aleppo, which was a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Most Famous
Writers from Syria
28 notable people
Top 10 Syrian Writers
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Syrian Writers of all time. This list of famous Syrian Writers 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 Syrian Writers.
#1 #2 
Al-Maʿarri
973 - 1057
HPI 70.7349 languagesAl-Maʿarri was a poet and philosopher from Syria who wrote in Arabic. He is most famous for his work "The Epistle of Forgiveness," which was a response to the "Epistle of Forgiveness" by Al-Ghazali.
#3 
Heliodorus of Emesa
250 - 400
HPI 69.8930 languages3rd/4th century Greco-Roman writer
#4 
Nizar Qabbani
1923 - 1998
HPI 68.8039 languagesNizar Qabbani is most famous for his poems that are about love and longing.
#5 
Adunis
b. 1930
HPI 68.7146 languagesAdonis is most famous for being a handsome young man who was loved by Aphrodite, the goddess of love. He was killed by a wild boar and Aphrodite was so distraught that she turned him into an anemone flower.
#6 
Andrew of Crete
660 - 740
HPI 68.1625 languagesAndrew of Crete is most famous for his Hexameron, a work on six days of creation.
#7 
Herodian
170 - 250
HPI 67.4635 languagesHerodian is most famous for being the historian of the Roman Empire during the reigns of the emperors Claudius, Nero, and Vespasian.
#8 
Abu Tammam
788 - 846
HPI 66.2135 languagesMuslim Arab poet of Abbasid era (died 850)
#9 
Cassius Longinus
213 - 273
HPI 65.9626 languagesSyrian/Egyptian Neoplatonist philosopher (c.213–273)
#10 
Usama ibn Munqidh
1095 - 1188
HPI 64.9025 languagesArabic poet
People by Birth Decade
Browse notable Syrians Writers grouped by birth decade. Each decade shows the top 10 by HPI; expand to see everyone.
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Overlapping Lives
Which Writers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 16 most globally memorable Writers since 1700.
HUMANITIES
