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• Ali Khamenei 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Ali Khamenei (1939–2026) was an Iranian Shia cleric and politician, president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 and then its second supreme leader from 1989 until his assassination on 28 February 2026 in Israeli airstrikes during the 2026 Iran war — the longest tenure of any supreme leader. Born at Mashhad, he studied at Qom in the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini and was a mainstream figure of the Iranian Revolution; his son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed him as supreme leader.

• Colette Khoury 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Syrian novelist and poet (died 2026), granddaughter of prime minister Fares al-Khoury and daughter of the minister Suhail al-Khoury. A pioneer of Arab feminist literature, she became known for her novel Days With Him (1961), sat in the People's Council, and served as literary adviser to the president.

• Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (1 January 1952 – 12 July 2026) was Emir of Qatar from 1995 until his abdication in 2013, after which he was styled the Father Emir. He graduated from Sandhurst in 1971 and rose through the armed forces to chief of staff, minister of defence and heir apparent, then deposed his father in a bloodless coup in 1995. Under his rule liquefied natural gas production reached 77 million tonnes a year and Qatar became the richest country per capita in the world; he founded Qatar Foundation (1995), Al Jazeera and the Qatar Museums Authority, Qatar won the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and he then handed power to his son Tamim in a step without Gulf precedent.

• Ibrahim ibn Adil al-Madani 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Saudi muezzin and teacher (1974–2026) from Medina with a university degree in Qur'anic studies, appointed a muezzin of the Masjid al-Haram in May 2018 and known for the dawn adhan, the takbirat and relaying the imam's calls; he died on 21 September 2026 and was buried at al-Ma'la.

• İlber Ortaylı 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Turkish historian of Crimean Tatar origin (1947–2026), among the most prominent Ottoman historians of his generation. Born in a refugee camp at Bregenz, Austria, he came to Turkey aged two, studied at Ankara, Vienna and Chicago — his master's under Halil İnalcık — and took his doctorate at Ankara University in 1978. He taught at Ankara, Galatasaray and Bilkent universities, directed the Topkapı Palace Museum from 2005 to 2012, and brought Ottoman history to a mass audience through his books and television programmes. He died at Istanbul on 13 March 2026 and was buried in the Fatih Mosque graveyard.

• Liamine Zéroual 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Liamine Zéroual (1941–2026) was an Algerian officer and politician, a veteran of the war of independence. He was minister of defence, then head of state in 1994 in succession to the High Council of State, and was elected president in 1995, ruling until 1999 in the midst of the civil war; he died in Algiers on 28 March 2026.

• Marjane Satrapi 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Iranian-French comic-book author, artist and film director (1969-2026), born in Rasht and raised in Tehran. Her autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis made her one of the most widely read Iranian authors in the world; she died in Paris in June 2026.

• Michael Bambang Hartono 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Michael Bambang Hartono (born Oei Hwie Siang on 2 October 1939 in Kudus; died 19 March 2026 in Singapore) was an Indonesian businessman who inherited Djarum with his younger brother Robert Budi Hartono in 1963 and built the Djarum Group and Bank Central Asia with him; an international bridge player, he won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games as Indonesia's oldest athlete, and two independent texts attest that he was a Catholic.

• Sidya Touré 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Guinean politician (1945–2026) born at Dimbokro, a treasury inspector and former exile in Côte d'Ivoire whom President Lansana Conté appointed Prime Minister of Guinea on 9 July 1996 — the first holder of the office since 1984 — until his dismissal on 8 March 1999; he then led the opposition Union of Republican Forces (UFR), was seriously injured in the 28 September 2009 stadium protest, placed third in the 2010 presidential election, and died in exile at a Paris hospital on 25 September 2026.

• Walid Khalidi 2026 Figures of the last fifty years

  Palestinian historian (1925–2026), co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut (1963) and its general secretary until 2016. He taught at Oxford, the American University of Beirut and Harvard; his Before Their Diaspora and All That Remains are foundational documentation of Palestinian society and of the villages depopulated in 1948. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 100.

• Minhaj (Muslim World League app) 2025 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  An app and digital platform of the Muslim World League, built with the Elm company and launched in Mecca on 27 November 2025 after the Islamic Fiqh Council approved the idea in its resolution 23 of 13 Shawwal 1445 AH; it gathers the mushaf, prayer times, qibla, adhkar, religious consultations, courses, zakat and inheritance calculators and virtual communities, in seven languages, and addresses Muslims in minority countries in particular.

• International Day to Combat Islamophobia 2022 Declaration Rights and protest

  A United Nations observance on 15 March every year, proclaimed by the General Assembly by consensus on 15 March 2022 in a resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the date is the anniversary of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.

• Nusuk 2022 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  A Saudi digital platform and mobile app launched by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah on 26 September 2022 as the successor of the Eatmarna app, for Umrah permits, bookings to visit al-Rawda al-Sharifa, Hajj registration, Umrah visas, lodging and transport, in twenty-five languages; the ministry announced 30 million downloads in September 2025, and the minister said in March 2026 that it had passed 51 million users.

• Tarteel (app) 2020 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  A Qur'an app that listens to a reader's recitation and corrects mistakes with AI; it began as a project in 2018, collected more than 80,000 recitation recordings, joined MIT's Sandbox accelerator in autumn 2019, and launched as an app on iOS and Android on 9 January 2020 after acquiring the Iqra app; it shows 10M+ downloads on Google Play.

• Muzz (formerly Muzmatch) 2015 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  A matchmaking and marriage app for Muslims founded by Shahzad Younas in London in 2015 as Muzmatch; it joined Y Combinator in 2017 and renamed itself Muzz in May 2022 after Match Group won a trademark case against it in a British court; it announced ten million members in 2024.

• Muslim Pro 2010 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  A prayer-times, adhan, qibla and Qur'an app published by Bitsmedia in Singapore, released on iOS in 2010 and on Android in 2011; it was acquired in 2017 by a Malaysian and a Singaporean investment firm, added the streaming service Qalbox in 2022, and the company says its downloads passed 190 million by Ramadan 2026. A Motherboard investigation of November 2020 found it sending location data to a broker that sold data to US military contractors, after which it said it would stop.

• Quran Majeed (Pakdata app) 2010 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  A Qur'an reading and listening app by Pakdata of Karachi, with recitations by more than thirty reciters, translations and tafsir in more than fifty languages, prayer times, the adhan, the qibla and memorisation tools, on iOS, Android, Huawei and macOS; its site says it has been in use since 2010, and its Google Play page shows 10M+ downloads.

• Islam360 2009 App Websites, apps, games and devices Pakistan

  A Karachi app for searching the Qur'an and hadith by word, verse and subject, with recitations, translations, tafsir, prayer times and the qibla, in Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Romanised Urdu; it began as a desktop program, 'Search Quran', made by Zahid Hussain Chhipa in 2009, then became a free app funded by advertising and donors, published on Google Play by the Islam360 Foundation Trust.

• Thank You Allah 2009 Album Music and nasheed

  Maher Zain's debut studio album, released by Awakening Records in November 2009 with thirteen songs and two bonus tracks, mainly in English with versions in Arabic, French, Turkish, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian; it was certified multi-platinum in Malaysia and Indonesia, and songs such as 'Insha Allah' and 'Ya Nabi Salam Alayka' spread worldwide online.

• IslamicFinder (and the Athan app) 1998 App Websites, apps, games and devices

  A website and app for prayer times, the adhan, the qibla and the Hijri calendar, online before December 1998 as a directory of Islamic centres and mosques in the United States with local prayer times, and maintained in 2001 by the non-profit Wasat.com; its Athan app shows 10M+ downloads on Google Play, and the site calls it 'trusted by 55 million believers'.

• Mohamed Salah 1992 SportFigures of the last fifty years Egypt

  Egyptian professional footballer, born in Nagrig, Gharbia, in 1992, who began at Al-Mokawloon, starred for Liverpool (2017–2026) winning the Champions League and Premier League titles and setting scoring records, captained Egypt at the 2026 World Cup, and plays for Trabzonspor in Türkiye since 2026. This record is the footballer, not the Tunisian scholar Mohamed Salah Ben Mrad, who has his own record in the museum.