List of Shia Muslims

The following is a list of notable Shia Muslims.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Historical political figures

Late Islamic history

• The Twelve Imams
• Idris I – founder of the Idrisid dynasty
• Syed Muhammad Mir Ali Naqvi – Chief Justice of the court of Akbar the Great, Mir Adal; served on the court, 1579–1581; governor of Sindh
• Hasan ibn Zayd – founder of the Alavids dynasty
• Al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya – founder of the Zaidi imamate State
• Sayf al-Daula – ruler of the Hamdanid dynasty (945–967)
• Mu'izz al-Daula – ruler of the Buyid dynasty (945–967)
• Abu 'Abdullah al-Shi'i – a Da'i for the Isma'ilis in Yemen and North Africa mainly among the Kutama Berbers, whose teachings influenced the rise of the Fatimid dynasty
• Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah – founder of the Fatimid dynasty
• Al-Muizz Lideenillah – fourth Fatimid Caliph Founder of the city of Cairo
• Sitt al-Mulk – ruler of the Fatimids (1021–1023); elder sister of Al-Hakim
• Arwa al-Sulayhi – ruler, first through her two husbands and then alone, of Yemen
• Sharifa Fatima – Zaydi chief in 15th-century Yemen
• Salih ibn Mirdas – founder of the Mirdasids emirate
• Muhammad ibn al-Musayyib – founder of the Uqaylid Dynasty
• An-Nasir – 34th Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad
• Tekuder – first Muslim Khan of Ilkhanate
• Ghazan – ruler of the Ilkhanate dynasty (1295–1304)
• Öljaitü – eighth Ilkhanate ruler
• Uzun Hassan – ruler of the Ak Koyunlu dynasty (1453–1478)
• Ismail I – founder of the Safavid dynasty
• Abbas I of Persia – ruler of the Safavid dynasty (1588–1629)
• Karim Khan – founder of the Zand dynasty

Scientists, mathematicians and philosophers

• The Twelve Imams
• Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali – close companion of Imam Ali and grammarian; the first to place dots on the Arabic words and the first to write on Arabic linguistics
• Abu Zayd al-Balkhi – Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist
• Jabir ibn Hayyan – Author of an enormous number and variety of works in Arabic often called the Jabirian corpus covering a wide range of topics, including alchemy, cosmology, numerology, astrology, medicine, magic, mysticism and philosophy.
• Abu Ali Sina – Persian polymath; also known as Avicenna to the West
• Al-Farabi – Muslim polymath and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of Persia and the Islamic world in his time; a cosmologist, logician, musician, psychologist and sociologist
• Al-Kindi – Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers, and is unanimously hailed as the "father of Arab philosophy".
• Abu Nasr Mansur – known for his work with the spherical sine law
• Muhammad al-Idrisi – Islamic geographer, cartographer, Egyptologist – descendant of the Idrisid dynasty
• Alhazen – Iraqi polymath; regarded as father of optics for his Book of Optics, as well as the founder of experimental psychology and experimental physics
• Al-Biruni – Persian polymath, Physicist and astronomer who contributed to the introduction of the experimental scientific method to mechanics, unified statics and dynamics into the science of mechanics and so on.
• Khalil ibn Ahmad – Iraqi Arab philologist and linguist
• Sibawayh – linguist
• Ahmed ibn Yusuf – Iraqi Arab mathematician
• Nasir al-Din al-Tusi – astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, early Islamic philosopher, physician and marja; early pioneer of biological evolution and the first to propose in specific terms the notion of the 'conservation of mass' -central to experimental chemistry. Described as the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right.
• Abū Sahl al-Qūhī – Persian mathematician, physicist and astronomer
• Ibn Miskawayh – philosopher and scientist; described the process of evolution in the 10th century
• Ferdowsi – poet, author of Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran
• Abu Mikhnaf – Iraqi Arab Muslim historian
• Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi – Iraqi Arab Muslim historian
• Ya'qubi – Iraqi Muslim historian and geographer
• Ahmad ibn A'zham – Iraqi Muslim historian
• Al-Masudi – Iraqi Arab historian and geographer known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs"
• Ibn al-Nadim – Iraqi historian
• Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī – Arab Muslim geographer, poet, grammarian, historian, and astronomer
• Ibn Wahshiyya – Nabataean Arab writer, alchemist, agriculturalist, Egyptologist and historian
• Abolfadl Harawi – Iranian Muslim astronomer
• Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi – Iranian Muslim astronomer, mathematician
• Al-Birjandi – Iranian Muslim astronomer
• Abū Ja'far al-Khāzin – Persian Muslim astronomer and mathematician
• Ibn Hawqal – Arab writer, geographer, and chronicler
• Qadi al-Nu'man – Isma'ili jurist and the official historian of the Fatimid caliphs
• Ali ibn Ridwan – Egyptian Muslim physician, astrologer, astronomer, philosopher
• Mariam al-Asturlabi – 10th-century female astronomer and maker of astrolabes
• Ibn al-Nadim – 10th century bibliophile of Baghdad and compiler of the Arabic bibliographic-biographic encyclopedia Kitāb al-Fihrist ('The Book Catalogue')
• Avicenna – Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age; "father of medicine"; writer of the Canon of Medicine; philosopher and logician, Shia religious scholar, biologist, chemist, mathematician, geographer
• Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani – Persian philosopher
• Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī – astronomer, mathematician
• Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī – Arab Shia Islamic scholar, philosopher, architect, mathematician, astronomer and poet who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
• Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi – Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician, architect and engineer
• Ibn al-Tiqtaqa – Iraqi Arab Muslim historian
• Iskandar Beg Munshi – court historian of the Safavid emperor Shah Abbas I
• Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi – chief secretary, historian, biographer, advisor, strategist.
• Mulla Sadra – philosopher, founder of existentialism and transcendent theosophy
• Mir Damad – Iranian philosopher
• Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah – electrical and electronics research engineer, mathematician and inventor.
• Rammal Rammal – Lebanese condensed matter physicist
• Allama Rasheed Turabi – Hyderabad, India later migrated to Pakistan theologian, scholar, philosopher
• Kazem Behbehani – Kuwaiti immunologist and retired professor. He has done research on tropical diseases before he became an international health advocate at WHO.
• Lotfi Asker Zadeh – Iranian computer scientist; founder of fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy set theory.
• Cumrun Vafa – Iranian-American theoretical physicist at Harvard, Winner of Breakthrough Prize
• Nima Arkani-Hamed – Iranian-American theoretical physicist at Princeton, winner of Breakthrough Prize
• Ali Javan – Iranian-American physicist and inventor
• Yasaman Farzan – Iranian theoretical physicist
• Saba Valadkhan – Iranian biomedical researcher
• Fereydoon Family – Iranian physicist
• Mahmoud Hessaby – Iranian physicist
• Iraj Malekpour – Iranian physicist
• Mehran Kardar – theoretical physicist, MIT
• Omid Kordestani – Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Fields Operations, Google
• Ali Hajimiri – Caltech, co-founder of Axiom Microdevices
• Payam Heydari – electrical engineer and computer scientist, University of California Irvine
• Ali Khademhosseini – Iranian-American-Canadian biomedical engineer at Harvard
• Babak Hassibi – electrical engineer, Caltech
• Caro Lucas – Iranian Armenian scientist
• Ali Chamseddine – Lebanese theoretical physicist
• Wissam S. al-Hashimi – Iraqi geologist
• Husain Mohammad Jafri – academician
• Athar Ali – Pakistani system engineer and a rocket scientist
• Pervez Hoodbhoy – nuclear physicist and activist
• Agha Shahi – diplomat and technocrat
• Razi Abedi – literary figure, activist and scholar of Pakistan
• Nayyar Ali Zaidi – Pakistani architect
• Kalbe Razi Naqvi – British Pakistani physicist

Poets and writers

• Al-Farazdaq – Arab poet
• Kuthayyir – Arab poet
• Kumait Ibn Zaid – Arab poet
• Abu Nuwas – renowned classical Arabic and Persian poet
• Abu-l-'Atahiya – Arab poet
• Abu Tammam – Arab poet
• Ibn al-Rumi – Arab poet
• Al-Mutanabbi – regarded as one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language
• Abu Firas al-Hamdani – writer and member of the noble family of the Hamdanid
• Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani – Arab poet and writer
• Khalil ibn Ahmad – Arab poet and writer
• Nasir Khusraw – Persian poet, philosopher and traveler
• Mirza Ghalib – renowned classical Urdu and Persian poet, writer, and philosopher
• Mir Taqi Mir – renowned Urdu and Persian poet, philosopher
• Syed Ali Haider Nazam Tabatabai – translated Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard from poem to poem in Urdu. (1854 Luckhnow-1933 Hyderabad Deccan India). He was head of Translation Department of Usmania University, could speak write and understand English, German, French, Persian and Arabic.
• Mir Anis – classical Urdu poet and master of the elegies in honor of the tragedy of Karbala known as Marsiya which was instrumental in the propagation of azadari, or mourning of Muharram in South Asia
• Mirza Dabeer – Urdu poet and master of the Marsiya, contemporary, friend, and rival of Mir Anis
• Safi al-din al-Hilli (1278 - c. 1349) – Iraqi poet
• Fuzûlî Iraqi Turkoman – poet, writer and thinker
• Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri – Iraqi poet
• Abdullah Al-Baradouni – Yemeni writer and poet
• Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh – Bahrani poet
• Qassim Haddad – Bahrani poet, researcher, writer
• Ali Al Jallawi – Bahrani poet
• Badawi al-Jabal – Syrian poet
• Qurratulain Hyder – (She was Sunni but widely thought of as shia because of her name, Hyder..) female novelist and writer regarded as the "Grande Dame of Urdu literature"
• Adunis – Syrian poet and writer
• Muhammed Almagut – Syrian poet and writer
• Badr Shakir al-Sayyab – Iraqi poet
• Nazik Al-Malaika – influential contemporary Iraqi female poet
• Bint al-Huda – Iraqi educator and political activist
• Hasan Zyko Kamberi – Albanian poet and writer
• Naim Frashëri – Albanian poet and writer
• Sami Frashëri – Albanian poet and writer
• Abdyl Frashëri – Albanian poet and writer
• Saadi – Iranian poet
• Molavi – born in Balkh; Afghanistan poet
• Hafez – Iranian poet
• Shahriar – Iranian poet

Professionals

• Azim Premji – Indian business tycoon, investor and philanthropist Mumbai
• Fakhruddin T. Khorakiwala – Indian businessman and Sheriff of Mumbai

Politicians

Albania

• Xhafer Bej Ypi – former Prime Minister of Albania
• Mehdi Bej Frashëri – former Prime Minister of Albania

Azerbaijan

• Heydar Aliyev – former President of Azerbaijan
• Ilham Aliyev – current President of Azerbaijan

Bahrain

• Abdul Amir al-Jamri – 'spiritual leader' of Bahrain's Twelver Shi'a population and the 1990s Intifada
• Hasan Mushaima – secretary-general of the current Haq Movement
• Ali Salman – secretary-general of the current Al-Wefaq
• Abdulhadi Al Khawaja – leading Bahraini human rights activist
• Nabeel Rajab – President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Bangladesh

• Nawab Ali Abbas Khan, Jatiya Party politician and three-time MP for Maulvibazar-2
• Nawab Ali Haider Khan, 9th Nawab of Longla, minister and leader of the Independent Muslim Party

Pakistan

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah – 'Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah' Mahomedali Jinnahbhai (1876 – 1948), lawyer, politician, and the founder of Pakistan.
• Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan- (4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980), Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army and 3rd President of Pakistan.

India

syed Raza hussain Azad- Congress politician

• Kaifi Azmi – poet
• Tanveer Zaidi
• Bismillah Khan – musician
• Saiyid Nurul Hasan – professor
• Altamas Kabir
• Ayatullah Syed Abul Hasan Rizvi Kishmiri – Shia Mujtah
• Ayatullah Syed Mohammad Baqir Rizvi – Shia jurist
• Syed Kirmani
• Mir Anis
• Mirza Dabeer
• Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda
• Javed Abidi
• Nawab of Banganapalle
• Nawab of Masulipatam
• Intezar Abidi – politician
• Sir Sultan Ahmed
• Mir Sadiq
• Sayyed Mahmud Khan
• Kamal Amrohi
• Shabana Azmi
• Azim Premji
• Syed Kirmani – cricketer
• Bade Ghulam Ali Khan – singer
• Nawab of Rampur – king
• Nawab of Lucknow – king
• Nargis Dutt – actress
• Naushad – music director
• Salim-Sulaiman – musician
• Jagdeep
• Muzaffar Ali
• Farah Naaz
• Akbar Khan
• Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi – Union Minister govt. India
• M. F. Hussain – painter
• S. H. Raza – painter
• Salim Ali – ornithologist
• Saeed Naqvi – journalist
• Syed Ahmed – Governor of Jharkhand
• Mohsin Zaidi – poet

Iran

• Amir Kabir – Prime Minister of Persia under Nasereddin Shah
• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – last Shah of Iran from 1941 until his overthrow due to the 1979 Iranian Revolution
• Mohammed Mosaddeq – former Prime Minister of Iran
• Ruhollah Khomeini – marja, philosopher and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
• Ali Khamenei – marja, third President and current Supreme Leader of Iran
• Mehdi Bazargan – former Prime Minister of Iran
• Mohammad-Javad Bahonar – former Prime Minister of Iran (killed by terrorists)
• Abolhassan Banisadr – first President of Iran following the Iranian Revolution
• Mohammad-Ali Rajai − second President of Iran (killed by terrorists)
• Mostafa Chamran – Iranian defense minister, first commander of the Pasdaran and founding member of the Freedom Movement of Iran
• Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani – fourth President of Iran and current head of the Expediency Discernment Council
• Mohammad Khatami – leading reformist Iranian politician and fifth President of Iran
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – sixth President of Iran and former Mayor of Tehran
• Hassan Rouhani – seventh and current President of Iran and former Chief Nuclear Negotiator
• Ali Larijani – Iranian philosopher and speaker of the Iranian parliament
• Ali Akbar Mohtashami-Pur – reformist Iranian politician and coordinator of Hezbollah in its early days

Iraq

• Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali – Iraqi foreign minister, and Prime Minister of Iraq
• Naji Talib – former Prime Minister of Iraq
• Ezzedine Salim – former Iraqi politician
• Ibrahim al-Jaafari – former Prime Minister of Iraq
• Nouri al-Maliki – former Prime Minister of Iraq
• haider al-Abadi – current Prime Minister of Iraq
• Adil Abdul-Mahdi – Iraqi Shi'a politician, economist
• Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim – former leader of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq
• Abdul Aziz al-Hakim – leader of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq
• Jalal al-Din Ali al-Saghir – Iraqi politician and a member of parliament in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq
• Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum – prominent Twelver Shi'a Islamic leader and politician in Iraq
• Muqtada al-Sadr – Iraqi politician and head of the Mahdi Army
• Ahmed Chalabi – Iraqi politician
• Abbas al-Bayati – Iraqi Shiite Turkmen politician
• Jasim Mohammed Jaafar – Iraqi Shiite Turkmen politician
• Hussain al-Shahristani – current Iraqi Minister of Oil
• Shirwan al-Waili – current Iraqi Minister of State for National Security
• Mowaffak al-Rubaie – current Iraqi National Security Advisor
• Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi – current Finance Minister of Iraq
• Khaled al-Attiyah -elected First Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly
• Salama al-Khufaji – former member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq
• Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail – Iraqi politician and a member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq

Kuwait

• Adnan Zahid Abdulsamad – member of the National Assembly of Kuwait
• Ahmed Lari – member of the National Assembly of Kuwait
• Ali Hussain Al-Awadhi – journalist and politician
• Hussein AlـQallaf Al-Bahraini – member of the National Assembly of Kuwait
• Hassan Jawhar – member of the National Assembly of Kuwait
• Rola Dashti – member of the National Assembly of Kuwait
• Ibrahim Khraibut – member of first National Assembly of Kuwait
• Massouma al-Mubarak – Kuwait's first female minister
• Ibtihal Al-Khatib – secular academic and politician
• Saleh Ashour – member of the Kuwaiti parliament
• Hassan Jawhar – member of the Kuwaiti parliament

Lebanon

• Adel Osseiran – one of the founders of modern Lebanon
• Musa al-Sadr – contemporary Islamic philosopher and co-founder of the Amal Movement
• Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah (also Muhammad Husayn Fadl-Allāh or Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allāh) (born 1935) – prominent Lebanese Twelver Shi'a Muslim cleric
• Hussein el-Husseini – former speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, co-founder of the Amal Movement, fathered the Taif Agreement that led to the end of the Lebanese Civil War
• Nabih Berri – Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon; head of the mostly Shi'a Amal Movement
• Abbas Musawi – former Secretary-General of Hezbollah
• Hassan Nasrallah – Secretary-General of Hezbollah
• Imad Mughniyah – former head of Hezbollah's external security apparatus
• Ali Qanso – former Secretary-General of Syrian Social Nationalist Party
• Ali Eid – Secretary-General of Arabic Democratic Party

Pakistan

• Benazir Bhutto – former prime minister of Pakistan
• Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – former prime minister of Pakistan founder of Pakistan People's Party
• Iskander Mirza – first President of Pakistan
• Agha Yahya Khan – former President of Pakistan
• Muhammad Musa – Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff during 1965 Indo Pak war and later Governor of Balauchistan
• Quid-e-Azam – founder of Pakistan
• Nayyar Hussain Bukhari – Chairman of Senate of Pakistan
• Ch. Nazar Muhammad Gondal
• Syed Mehdi Shah – former Chief Minister of GB Province
• Haider Abbas Rizvi
• Fakhar Imam
• Sadiq Hussain Qureshi
• Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat
• Faisal Sabzwari
• Ali Zaidi

Scholars

• Grand Ayatullah Muhammad Hussain Najafi – Sargodha
• Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi – Quaid e Millat e Jaffaria

Syria

• Zaki al-Arsuzi – Syrian political activist and writer
• Assad Family - Syrian Political Family who are ruling syria since 1970's

Yemen

• Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din – founder of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
• Ibrahim al-Hamadi – former President of Yemen
• Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi – Zaidi religious leader

Rulers and military figures

Earlier

• Sayf al-Daula – ruler of the Hamdanid dynasty (945–967)
• Gawhar al-Siqilli – the most important military leader in the Fatimid history; led the conquest of North Africa and then of Egypt, founded the city of Cairo and the great al-Azhar mosque
• Ziri ibn Manad – founder of the Zirid dynasty in the Maghreb
• Buluggin ibn Ziri – the first ruler of the Zirids in Ifriqiya
• Al-Mansur ibn Buluggin – the second ruler of the Zirids in Ifriqiya
• Badis ibn Mansur – the third ruler of the Zirids in Ifriqiya
• Abu Zayd al-Hilali – the 11th-century Arab leader and hero of the 'Amirid tribe of Banu Hilal
• Al-Afdal Shahanshah – a vizier of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt
• Iftikhar ad-Daula – the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem during the siege of Jerusalem
• Shawar – a ruler of Egypt, the vizier
• Hassan-i Sabbah – founded a group whose members are sometimes referred to as the Hashshashin
• Rashid ad-Din Sinan – one of the leaders of the Syrian wing of the Hashshashin sect and an important figure in the history of the Crusades

Azerbaijan

• Surat Huseynov – Azerbaijani colonel and ex-Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
• Eldar Mahmudov – head of the Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security
• Rail Rzayev – former head of the Azerbaijani Air Force

India

• Ali Adil Shah I of Bijapur (16th C), but his successors converted to Sunni Islam
• Wajid Ali Shah – last nawab of the princely kingdom of Awadh, early 19th Century

Iran

• Ali Khamenei – marja, third President and current Supreme Leader of Iran
• Ruhollah Khomeini – marja, philosopher and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – the last Shah of Iran of the Pahlavi dynasty, ruled from 1941 until being overthrown in the Iranian Revolution resulting in the abolishment of the Iranian monarchy
• Reza Shah Pahlavi – Shah of Iran from 1925–1941, and father of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
• Hassan-i Sabbah – founded a group whose members are sometimes referred to as the Hashshashin
• Allahverdi Khan – Iranian military and political leader of Georgian origin
• Imam-Quli Khan – Iranian general and statesman of Georgian origin
• Nader Shah – Shah of Iran during the Afsharid dynasty notable for his Naderian Wars, and conversion dominant belief system from Safavid ideology to Jafari fiqh
• Abbas Mirza – Qajar crown prince of Persia
• Gholamali Bayandor – first Commander of Imperial Iranian Navy
• Abbas Gharabaghi – last commander-in-chief of the Imperial Iranian Army
• Mohsen Rezaee – Chief commander of AGIR, 1981–1997
• Yahya Rahim Safavi – Chief commander of AGIR, 1997–2007
• Mohammad Ali Jafari – Chief commander of AGIR
• Ali Shamkhani – former defense minister of Iran
• Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar – current defense minister of Iran
• Ali Sayad Shirazi – chief-of-staff of the Iranian forces during Iran's eight-year war with Iraq
• Mohammad Boroujerdi – one of the founders of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (AGIR) and a commander in Iran–Iraq War; played key roles in regaining control over the territories of Kurdistan by Iranian forces
• Hossein Kharrazi – Iranian commander of "Imam Hosein 14th Division" during Iran–Iraq War

Iraq

• Abdel-Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi – led the resistance against Saddam Hussein's government in the southern marsh regions of Iraq, where he gained the title "Prince of the Marshes"
• Hadi Al-Amiri – head of the Badr Organization, which was the military wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council
• Aras Habib – a colonel in the Free Iraqi Fighters
• Abud Qanbar – former military governor of Baghdad

Lebanon

• Adham Khanjar – Lebanese national hero
• Mohammad Zgheib – 1948 Arab–Israeli War war hero
• Hisham Jaber – former military governor of Beirut
• Imad Mughniyah – former head of Hezbollah's external security apparatus
• Sana'a Mehaidli – Lebanese martyr
• Samir Kuntar – Lebanese militant and a former member of the Palestine Liberation Front

Syria

• Sayf al-Daula – ruler of the Hamdanid dynasty (945–967)
• Rashid ad-Din Sinan – one of the leaders of the Syrian wing of the Hashshashin sect and an important figure in the history of the Crusades
• Saleh al-Ali – commanded one of the first rebellions against the French mandate of Syria
• Salah Jadid – Syrian general and political figure in the Baath Party
• Assef Shawqat – head of the Syrian Military Intelligence apparatus since 2005
• Maher al-Assad – brother of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad; head of the Presidential Guard
• Ghazi Kanaan – Syria's Interior Minister, 2004–2005; long-time head of Syria's security apparatus in Lebanon
• Hisham Ikhtiyar – director of the GID, 2001–2005

Yemen

• Abdul-Malik al-Houthi – leader of Shi'a Zaidi
• Abdullah al-Ruzami – leader of Shi'a Zaidi

Theologians

• Al-Shaykh al-Saduq
• Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid
• al-Sharif al-Murtada
• Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni
• Shaykh Tusi
• Al-Hurr al-Aamili
• Shahid Awwal
• Shahid Thani
• Qazi Nurullah Shustari (Shahid Salis)
• Shahid Rabay
• Maitham Al Bahrani – 13th-century cleric and theologian
• Al-Hilli – 13th-century cleric and theologian

Religious figures

• Agha Muhammad Reza - Iranian Shia Muslim immigrant living in the Sylhet region of Bengal. Claimed to be the Mahdi and twelfth imam, engaged in battles against the East India Company and Kachari Kingdom.
• Syed Raza Naqvi - 21st-Century Scholar
• Salih Al-Karzakani – 17th-century cleric
• Muhammad Baqir Majlisi – 17th-century cleric
• Abdullah al Samahiji – 18th-century cleric
• Yusuf Al Bahrani – 18th-century cleric
• Allamah Ibrahim el-Zakzaky – influential Shia cleric in Africa; leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria
• Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani – cleric, head of the Council of Islamic revolution and founding member of the Freedom Movement of Iran
• Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr – Islamic philosopher, father of contemporary Islamic economics and founder of the Islamic Dawa Party
• Allameh Tabatabaei – one of the most prominent Islamic philosophers and, at one point, the foremost source of emulation (Marja) for Shi'a Muslims around the world
• Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah – foremost marja of Lebanese Shi'a Muslims
• Navvab Safavi – founder of the militant group Fadayan-e Islam
• Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani – currently the pre-eminent marja of Shi'a Muslims around the world and arguably the most influential political figure in Iraq today
• Ahmad Huseinzadeh – third Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus
• Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim – sole Shi'a marja in the early 1960s
• Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei – Shi'a marja
• Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr – Shi'a marja
• Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri – Shi'a marja
• Ahmed Al-Waeli – one of the most well-known Shi'a Islamic prominent clerks in the 20th century
• Aga Khan IV – imam of the Nizari Ismaili tariqah of Shia Islam
• Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi – well-known Twelver Shia scholar who promoted Shia Islam in East Africa
• Syed Ali Akhtar Rizvi – well-known Twelver Shī'ah scholar, speaker, author, historian and poet
• Allama Talib Jauhari
• Mohsin Naqvi – Urdu poet of Pakistan

Sufis

• Rajab Bursi – Arab Shi'ite theologian and mystic
• Sayyid Baraka – spiritual teacher and friend to the 14th-century warlord Timur
• Yunus Emre – Turkish poet and mystic
• Mir Shamsuddin – Iraqi missionary.
• Shah Ni'matullah Wali – Islamic scholar and poet
• Haji Bektash Veli – Islamic mystic, humanist and philosopher
• Safi-ad-din Ardabili – eponym of the Safavid dynasty
• Abba Yahiyya Ishmaili
• Baba Rexheb Albanian Bektashi

Modern and contemporary philosophers

• Morteza Motahhari – Iranian cleric, philosopher and politician
• Hossein Nasr – Islamic philosopher and professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University
• Muhammad Legenhausen – modern Shi'a Muslim philosopher of German American background, PhD at Rice University

Entertainment and media personalities

• Asghar Farhadi – Iranian film director and screenwriter
• Abdulhussain Abdulredha – Kuwaiti actor and writer
• Ali Haider – Pakistani singer; now Islamic singer
• Mohammad Reza Sharifinia – Iranian actor
• Zainab Bahrani – Iraqi art historian
• Shahriar Bahrani – Iranian film director
• Abbas Fahdel – Iraqi film director.
• Mir Sarwar - Indian film actor.
• Mohamed Al-Daradji – Iraqi Dutch film director
• Hassan Massoudy – Iraqi calligrapher
• Ahmed Al Safi – Iraqi artist
• Nedim Kufi – Iraqi artist
• Sadequain – Pakistani artist
• Usama Alshaibi – Iraqi-American independent filmmaker, visual and media artist
• Jagdeep – Syed Jawahar Ali Jaffery, comedy actor in early Indian cinema
• Farida Mohammad Ali – Iraqi singer
• Naseer Shamma – Iraqi musician and oud player
• Imran Abbas Naqvi – Pakistani Actor
• Sadegh Tirafkan – Iranian contemporary artist
• Khosrow Vaziri – Iranian professional wrestler, retired
• Rahat Kazmi – Pakistani actor, professional speaker and academician
• Zulfiqar Mirza – Pakistani politician
• Zain Imam- Indian Television Actor

Other

• Edoardo Agnelli – son of Gianni Agnelli and former heir to Fiat
• Qasem Soleimani – Iranian General

See also

• International rankings of Iran in science and technology
• Lists of Maraji