Caliph · 584 – 644

Umar ibn al-Khattab

If you're interested in Umar ibn al-Khattab, these historical figures share a similar impact, discipline, philosophy, or era. Each recommendation explains why the connection exists.

Similar Impact & Significance

Portrait of Khalid ibn al-Walid

Khalid ibn al-Walid

80

General · 585 – 642

Khalid ibn al-Walid was one of the greatest military commanders in history, the general whose undefeated campaigns won the early Islamic conquests of Arabia, Persia and the Roman Levant for the first caliphs.

  • Battle of Yarmouk
  • Undefeated military record

Why The brilliant general whose victories won the conquests during Umar's caliphate.

Portrait of Harun al-Rashid

Harun al-Rashid

81

Caliph · 763 – 809

Harun al-Rashid was the fifth Abbasid caliph, under whom the Islamic empire reached the height of its wealth, power and cultural splendor, ruling from Baghdad in an age immortalized in the tales of the Thousand and One Nights.

  • Abbasid golden age
  • Baghdad as a center of learning

Why A later caliph of the Abbasid golden age that grew from the empire Umar expanded.

Portrait of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great

90

Ruler · 600 BC – 530 BC

Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest empire the ancient world had yet seen, remembered for his military genius and his tolerance toward conquered peoples.

  • Founding the Persian Empire
  • The Cyrus Cylinder

Why The founder of the Persian Empire that fell to the Muslim armies under Umar.

Portrait of Augustus

Augustus

94

Emperor · 63 BC – 14

Augustus was the first Roman emperor, the heir of Julius Caesar who ended a century of civil war, established the Roman Empire, and inaugurated the Pax Romana.

  • First Roman emperor
  • The Pax Romana

Why Also a ruler & statesman · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II of Russia

87

Empress · 1729 – 1796

Catherine the Great was Empress of Russia for more than three decades, an enlightened despot who expanded the empire, modernized its administration, and made her court a brilliant centre of art and learning.

  • Expansion of the Russian Empire
  • Enlightened despotism

Why Also a ruler & statesman · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Charles Martel

Charles Martel

81

Military Leader · 688 – 741

Charles Martel was the Frankish military leader who halted the Muslim advance into Western Europe at the Battle of Tours in 732, laying the foundations of the Carolingian dynasty that his grandson Charlemagne would raise to empire.

  • Battle of Tours
  • Halting the Muslim advance

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Chiang Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek

82

General · 1887 – 1975

Chiang Kai-shek was the Chinese Nationalist leader who unified China in the late 1920s, led the country through the Japanese invasion in World War II, but lost the Chinese Civil War to Mao Zedong and retreated to Taiwan, which he ruled until his death.

  • Nationalist China
  • Chinese Civil War

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping

89

Statesman · 1904 – 1997

Deng Xiaoping was the Chinese leader who reversed Mao Zedong's catastrophic policies after 1978, opening China to market reforms that transformed it from a poor agrarian country into the world's second-largest economy.

  • Economic reform of China
  • Opening China to markets

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of George Washington

George Washington

91

Statesman · 1732 – 1799

George Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolution and the first President of the United States, whose leadership and restraint shaped the new republic.

  • Commanding the Continental Army
  • First U.S. President

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Haile Selassie I

Haile Selassie I

85

Emperor · 1892 – 1975

Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia who modernized his country, became the symbol of African resistance to European colonialism after surviving Mussolini's invasion, championed African unity at the UN and as founder of the African Union, and is venerated as a messiah by the Rastafari movement.

  • Symbol of African anti-colonialism
  • Founder of the African Union

Why Also a ruler & statesman · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

90

Revolutionary Leader · 1893 – 1976

Mao Zedong was the founder of the People's Republic of China, who led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the civil war, proclaimed the PRC in 1949, and then imposed radical revolutionary policies that caused tens of millions of deaths.

  • Founding the People's Republic of China
  • The Long March

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

81

Statesman · 1599 – 1658

Oliver Cromwell was the English military and political leader who helped overthrow and execute King Charles I in the English Civil War, then ruled England as Lord Protector in its only period as a republic — a deeply divisive figure ever since.

  • English Civil War
  • Execution of Charles I

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar

88

General · 1783 – 1830

Simón Bolívar was the South American general and statesman who liberated six nations from Spanish colonial rule, earning the title El Libertador and shaping the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia.

  • Liberation of South America
  • El Libertador

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Suleiman I

90

Sultan · 1494 – 1566

Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who led it to the height of its power through military conquest, legal reform and a brilliant flowering of art and architecture.

  • Ottoman golden age
  • Legal reforms (the Lawgiver)

Why Also a ruler & statesman · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

81

Statesman · 1537 – 1598

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the warrior-statesman who completed the unification of Japan begun by Oda Nobunaga, rising from peasant origins to rule the entire country before launching ambitious and ill-fated invasions of Korea.

  • Completing Japan's unification
  • Rise from peasant to ruler

Why Also a statesman & ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Mehmed II

Mehmed II

88

Sultan · 1432 – 1481

Mehmed II was the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire and the Middle Ages, transforming the city into Istanbul and making the Ottoman Empire the dominant power of the Eastern Mediterranean.

  • Conquest of Constantinople
  • End of the Byzantine Empire

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Atahualpa

Atahualpa

78

Emperor · 1502 – 1533

Atahualpa was the last independent ruler of the Inca Empire, who had just won a civil war for the throne when he was captured and executed by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, ending Inca rule over the Andes.

  • Last Inca emperor
  • Capture at Cajamarca

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Babur

Babur

81

Emperor · 1483 – 1530

Babur was the Central Asian conqueror who founded the Mughal Empire, a descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan who, after losing his ancestral lands, invaded India and established one of the greatest empires in its history.

  • Founding the Mughal Empire
  • Battle of Panipat

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Montezuma II

Montezuma II

79

Emperor · 1466 – 1520

Montezuma II was the ninth ruler of the Aztec Empire, who presided over its greatest extent and splendor before the arrival of the Spanish under Hernán Cortés led to his death and the empire's fall.

  • Ruler of the Aztec Empire at its height
  • Encounter with Cortés

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Tamerlane

Tamerlane

81

Conqueror · 1336 – 1405

Tamerlane was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who built a vast empire from Central Asia, the last of the great steppe conquerors, whose brilliant and brutal campaigns made him master of much of the Islamic world while his capital Samarkand flourished.

  • Conquests across Asia
  • Capital at Samarkand

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of William the Conqueror

William the Conqueror

84

King · 1028 – 1087

William the Conqueror was the Duke of Normandy who invaded England in 1066, won the Battle of Hastings, and became its king, transforming English society, language and government in one of the most consequential conquests in history.

  • Norman Conquest of England
  • Battle of Hastings

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

92

President · 1809 – 1865

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, who led the nation through its Civil War, preserved the Union, and abolished slavery before his assassination in 1865.

  • Leading the Union in the Civil War
  • The Emancipation Proclamation

Why Also a statesman · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar

Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar

88

Emperor · 1542 – 1605

Akbar was the third Mughal emperor, who expanded the empire across much of the Indian subcontinent and is remembered for his administrative reforms, religious tolerance and patronage of the arts during a long and powerful reign.

  • Expansion of the Mughal Empire
  • Religious tolerance

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact

Portrait of Akhenaten

Akhenaten

78

Pharaoh · 1380 BC – 1334 BC

Akhenaten was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty who launched a religious revolution, replacing Egypt's many gods with the worship of a single deity, the sun-disc Aten — one of the earliest experiments with monotheism.

  • Worship of the Aten
  • City of Amarna

Why Also a ruler · Comparable historical impact