- Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. He first achieved fame with his second novel, "Midnight's Children" (1981), which won the Booker Prize. Much of his early fiction is set at least partly on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the long, rich and often fraught story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the East and the West. - Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis (born May 31, 1916, London) is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He specializes in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West and is especially famous for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire. Lewis is one of the most widely-read scholars of the Middle East, whose advice is frequently sought by policymakers. - George Soros
George Soros (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is an American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist. He peacefully promotes democracy in Eastern Europe. Currently, he is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. His support for the Solidarity labor movement in Poland, … - Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940 - July 20, 1973) was a martial artist, philosopher, instructor, and martial arts actor widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century. Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Lee is best remembered for the presentation of Chinese martial arts to the non-Chinese world. - Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (ca. 535-475 BCE) (Ancient Greek: - ("Herakleitos the Ephesian")), known as "The Obscure" (Ancient Greek -), was a pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher, a native of Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor (Present day Turkey, Efes). His father was named Bloson. Any further details of his life remain shrouded in antiquity, as none of his commentators suggest any details of his life. - A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (September 1 1896-November 14 1977) was the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (popularly known as the "Hare Krishnas"). Born as Abhay Charan De, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He studied at the Scottish Churches College, Calcutta, which was then administered by the British. Before adopting the life of a vanaprastha, or pious renunciant, in 1950, … - Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar ("Robi Shôngkor", (born April 7, 1920, in Benares, United Provinces, British India) is an Indian composer best known for his virtuosity on the sitar. A disciple of Allauddin Khan (founder of the Maihar gharana of Indian classical music), Pandit Ravi Shankar is, perhaps, the best-known Indian instrumentalist in the world. He is well known for his pioneering work in bringing the power and appeal of Indian classical music tradition, … - Pim Fortuyn
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus (Pim) Fortuyn, (February 19, 1948 – May 6, 2002), was a controversial, openly gay, charismatic populistic right-wing politician in the Netherlands who formed his own party "Lijst Pim Fortuyn" (List Pim Fortuyn or LPF). He was assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, … - Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti (born 1933) is an American political scientist, historian, and media critic. - Tenzin Gyatso
Tenzin Gyatso (born 6 July 1935) is the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama. As such, he is often referred to in Western media simply as the Dalai Lama, without any qualifiers. The fifth of sixteen children of a farming family in the Tibetan province of Amdo, he was proclaimed the "tulku" (rebirth) of the thirteenth Dalai Lama at the age of two. On 17 November 1950, at the age of fifteen, … - Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (born c. 1944, Ntungamo, Uganda) has been the President of Uganda since January 29, 1986. Museveni was involved in the war that toppled Idi Amin's (1971–79) rule and the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of Milton Obote's (1980–85) regime. With the notable exception of northern areas, Museveni has brought relative stability and economic growth to a country that has endured decades of government mismanagement, … - Al-Kindi
"' (c. 801-873 CE), also known by the Latinized version of his name Alkindus"' to the West, was a Muslim Arab scientist, philosopher, mathematician, physician, astronomer and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers, and is well known for his efforts to introduce Greek philosophy to the Arab world. Al-Kindi was a descendant of the Kinda tribe. He was born and educated in Kufa, before going to pursue further studies in Baghdad. - Al-Farabi
Abū Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Farakh al-Fārābi or Abū Nasr al-Fārābi (in some sources, known as Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzlagh al-Farabi), also known in the West as Alpharabius, Al-Farabi, Farabi, and Abunaser (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, … - Ibn Kathir
Born in 1301, Ismail ibn Kathir was an Islamic scholar. His full name is Abu Al-Fida, 'Imad Ad-Din Isma'il bin 'Umar bin Kathir Al-Qurashi Al-Busrawi. He was born in Busra, Syria (hence Al-Busrawi). He was taught by the "scholar of Islam"Ibn Taymiyya in Damascus, Syria and Abu al-Hajjaj Al-Mizzi, d. 742H, main teacher of Ibn Kathir. Upon completion of his studies obtained his first official appointment in 1341, … - Faye Wong
Faye Wong (born August 8, 1969 in Beijing) is a Chinese singer, songwriter, actress and model. She is an icon popular in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and to some extent in the West. One of the most distinguished female vocalists in recent Chinese music history, her following has grown so large and devoted that media in Hong Kong, Taiwan, … - Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda (Bengali: পরমহংস যোগানন্দ "Pôromôhongsho Joganondo", Hindi: परमहंस योगानन्द; January 5, 1893-March 7, 1952), was an Indian yogi and guru. He was instrumental in bringing the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga to the West. His book, "Autobiography of a Yogi", has introduced several generations of readers to the teachings of yoga and Hinduism. - George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 - March 17, 2005) was an American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War. He later wrote standard histories of the relations between Russia and the Western powers. In the late 1940s, his writings inspired the Truman Doctrine and the U.S. foreign policy of "containing" the Soviet Union, … - Martin van Creveld
Martin van Creveld (born 1946) is an Israeli military historian and theorist. He was born in the Netherlands but has lived in Israel since shortly after his birth. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he has been on the faculty since 1971. He is the author of fifteen books on military history and strategy, of which "Command in War" (1985), "Supplying War" (1977, 2nd edition 2004), … - Salam Fayyad
Dr. Salam Fayyad (b. 1952) is a Palestinian politician, who, on June 15, 2007, was appointed the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. His appointment, justified by President Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of "national emergency", was not confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Council. Until that date, Fayyad had been the Finance Minister of the Palestinian National Authority in the Fatah interim government from 2002. - Eugen Weber
Eugen J. Weber (April 24, 1925, Bucharest - May 17, 2007, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California) was a prominent historian. He immigrated to the United Kingdom from Romania as a young man and studied at the Ashville College in Windermere. During World War II, he served with the British Army in Belgium, Germany and India between 1943 and 1947. Afterwards, Weber studied history at the Sorbonne and "Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris" (Sciences Po) in Paris, France. - Hawayo Takata
Hawayo Takata (December 24 1900 - December 11 1980), a Japanese-American born in Hanamaulu, Territory of Hawaii, introduced the spiritual practice of Reiki to the Western World. As a "Nisei" fluent in the language and culture of both Japan and the United States, she was well-suited for this task and her contributions in this area are widely-acknowledged. - Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh, born on 2 February ,1915 in Hadali, British India, now a part of Punjab, Pakistan, is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country. An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. - Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor (born 1954) is a Turner Prize winning sculptor. Born in Bombay (Mumbai), India, Kapoor attended the Doon School, located in Dehra Dun, India. He moved to England in 1972, where he has lived since. He studied art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art Design. He currently works in London, although he frequently visits India and has acknowledged that his art is inspired by both Western and Eastern cultures. - Suleiman The Magnificent
Suleyman I, was the tenth and longest‐serving Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning from 1520 to 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the Islamic world, as the Lawgiver (in Turkish "Kanuni";, "al‐Qānūnī"), deriving from his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. Within the empire, Suleiman was known as a fair ruler and an opponent of corruption. - Thespis
Thespis of Icaria (6th century BC) is claimed to be the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor in a play, although the reality is undoubtedly more complex. In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first actor in addition to the chorus. According to Aristotle, writing two hundred years later, Thespis was a singer of dithyrambs (songs about stories from mythology with choric refrains). - Mongkut
Mongkut (Rama IV), (October 18, 1804 - October 1, 1868) was king of Siam from 1851 to 1868. Historians have widely regarded him as one of the most remarkable kings of the Chakri Dynasty. Prince Mongkut was the son of King Rama II and his first wife Queen Srisuriyendra, whose first son died at birth in 1801. Prince Mongkut was five years old when his father succeeded to the throne in 1809. - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff ("Sergej Vasilevič Rakhmaninov", 1 April, 1873 (N.S.) or 20 March 1873 (O.S.) - 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. ("Sergei Rachmaninoff" was the spelling the composer himself used while living in the West throughout the latter half of his life. However, transliterations of his name include "Sergey" or "Serge", … - William Adams
William Adams, was an English navigator who travelled to Japan and is believed to be the first Briton ever to reach that country. He was the inspiration for the character of John Blackthorne in James Clavell's bestselling novel "Shogun". Soon after Adams' arrival in Japan, he became a key advisor to the "shogun" Tokugawa Ieyasu and built for him Japan's first Western-style ships. - Georg Feuerstein
Dr. Georg Feuerstein (born 1947) is a well-known German-Canadian Indologist, and a Western authority on Yoga. Feuerstein moved to England to do his postgraduate research at Durham University and subsequently lived for 23 years in the United States. Today, he is a resident of Canada and lives in Saskatchewan. Feuerstein is very prolific, having authored over 30 books on mysticism, Yoga, Tantra, and Hinduism. - Tony Jaa
Panom Yeerum born on February 5, 1976 in Surin Province, Thailand, better known in the West as Tony Jaa and in Thailand as Jaa Panom, is a Thai martial art film actor, choreographer and director. His films include "Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior" and "Tom-Yum-Goong" (also called "Warrior King" or "The Protector"). - Sheng-Yen
Venerable Master Sheng-yen is one of the more famous living teachers of Chan (Japanese: Zen) Buddhism. Master Sheng Yen is the 57th generation descendant of Linji in the Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) School and a 3rd generation descendant of Master Hsu Yun. In the Caodong (Japanese: Soto) lineage, Master Sheng Yen is the 52nd generation descendant of Master Tung Shan (807-869), and the direct descendant of Master Tung Chu (1908-1977). - Uday Shankar
Uday Shankar was a world renowned classical dancer and choreographer from India. Born in Udaipur, Rajasthan to a Bengali family with origins in Narail (in modern-day Bangladesh), he was trained in the art in Bombay. He later studied at the Royal College of Art in London and danced along with ballerina Anna Pavlova. He created ballets based on Hindu themes like Radha-Krishna, Hindu weddings and other oriental themes for Anna. - Freya Stark
Dame Freya Madeleine Stark, DBE (b. 31 Jan1893, Paris France - d. 9 May 1993, Asolo Italy) was a British travel writer. In between that time, she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing, and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut); she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been. - Jackson J. Spielvogel
Jackson J. Spielvogel is an associate professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. His textbooks are commonly used in high school and college Western Civilization classes. Spielvogel holds a Ph.D., from Ohio State University, and specialized in Reformation history under the supervision of Harold J. Grimm. - Uzi Arad
Uzi Arad is the former Director of Intelligence for the Mossad and is currently a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He received a Ph.D. and M.A. at Princeton University, and is the author of a number of books on the Middle East. He has also served as a foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At Herzliya, Arad founded the Institute for Policy and Strategy. - George Antonius
George Antonius (جورج أنطونيوس) was the first historian of Arab nationalism. Born of Lebanese-Egyptian parentage and a Christian Arab, he served in the British Mandate of Palestine. His 1938 book "The Arab Awakening" was written as Palestine was slipping from Arab control. Antonius traced Arab nationalism to the reign of Mehmet Ali Pasha in Egypt. He argued that Arab nationalism was a product of the West, … - D. M. Thomas
Donald Michael Thomas, known as D. M. Thomas (born 27 January 1935, Redruth, Cornwall, UK) is a Cornish novelist, poet, and translator. He graduated with First Class Honours in English from New College, Oxford in 1959 and has lived and worked in Australia and the United States before returning to his native Cornwall. A prolific writer, Thomas' career has been most successful when his circumstances have allowed him to concentrate on writing. - Abū Rayhān Al-Bīrūnī
"'"' (September 15 973 in Kath, Khwarezm - December 13 1048 in Ghazni) was a Persian Muslim universal genius of the 11th Century, whose experiments and discoveries were as significant and diverse as those of Leonardo da Vinci or Galileo, five hundred years before the Renaissance; al-Biruni was well-known in the Muslim world, but unlike some of his contemporaries (such as Abulcasis, Alhacen, and Avicenna), al-Biruni's name was little known in the Western world. - Adel Al-Jubeir
Adel A. Al-Jubeir, His Excellency Adel A. Al-Jubeir (born February 1, 1962) is the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, and a former foreign policy advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He is a well-known representative of the Kingdom in the West, particularly the United States. - Lobo
Lobo (born Roland Kent Lavoie, July 31, 1943 in Tallahassee, Florida), is a singer-songwriter who was successful in the early 1970s, scoring several Top 10 hits, including "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo," "I'd Love You to Want Me" and "Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend." Lobo's songs have been characterised by their sweet melodies, sumptuous instrumentation and soulful lyrics. This has made him well known outside the Western world, including Africa, …
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