List of pre-modern Arab scientists and scholars
This is a list of Arab scientists and scholars from the Muslim World and Spain who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age, consisting primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages. For a list of contemporary Arab scientists and engineers see List of modern Arab scientists and engineers
Both the Arabic and Latin names are given. The following Arabic naming articles are not used for indexing:
A
- Ali, Arabic grammarian, rhetoric, theologian, exegesis and mystic
- Aisha, Islamic scholar, hadith narrator, her intellect and knowledge in various subjects, including poetry and medicine.
- Avempace, philosopher, astronomer, physician
- Amir Kulal, Sufi mystic and scholar
- Ammar al-Mawsili, ophthalmologist and physician
- Ali al-Uraidhi, Muslim scholar
- Ali ibn Isa al-Kahhal, physician and ophthalmologist
- Ali al-Hadi, Islamic scholar
- Ali ibn al-Madini, Islamic scholar and traditionalist
- Ali ibn Ridwan, astronomer and geometer with Khalid Ben Abdulmelik
- Ali al-Ridha, Islamic scholar and theologian
- Ahmad ibn Hanbal, theologian, ascetic, and hadith traditionist
- Ahmad al-Muhajir, scholar and teacher
- Ahmad ibn Yusuf, mathematician
- Ahmad ibn Abu Bakr al-Zuhri, Islamic scholar
- Apollodorus of Damascus, architect, engineer, and designer
- Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish al-Alami, religious scholar of Sufism
- Abdullah ibn Umar, Islamic scholar and hadith narrator
- Abd Allah al-Qaysi, Muslim jurist and theologian
- Abd-Allah ibn Ibadh, hadith narrator and theologian
- Abd al-Hamid al-Katib, founder of Arabic prose
- Ibn Abbas, jurist and theologian
- Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad, Sufi saint and jurist
- Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi, Islamic scholar and a prominent hadith master
- Abd al-Aziz Yemeni Tamimi, Sufi saint and scholar
- Abu al-Fazal Yemeni Tamimi, Sufi saint and mystic
- Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, grammarian
- Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, philosopher, Shafi'i scholar and theologian
- Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, Islamic scholar and judge of Maliki law
- Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam, mathematician
- Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala' linguists and grammarian
- Abu Bakr al-Aydarus, religious scholar of Sufism
- Al-Ashraf Umar II, astronomer and ruler of Yemen
- Al-Akhfash al-Akbar, Arab grammarian
- Al-Awza'i, jurist and theologian
- Al-Asma'i, pioneer of zoology, botany and animal husbandry
- Ibn Abi Asim, scholar, famous or his work in the hadith science
- Ibn al-'Awwam, agriculturist and botanist
- Ibn al-Adim, biographer and historian
- Ibn al-A'lam, astronomer and astrologer
- Ibn al-Athir, historian and biographer
- Ibn al-Abbar, historian, poet, diplomat, theologian and scholar
- Ibn al-Akfani, Arab encyclopedist and physician
- Ibn 'Adlan, cryptographer and poet
- Ibn Arabi, Islamic scholar and philosopher
- Ibn Arabshah, writer and traveller
B
- Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, philosopher, architect, mathematician, astronomer
- Bahlool, judge and scholar
- Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, mathematician
- Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, physician, historian, Egyptologist and traveler
- Al-Baqillani, theologian, scholar, and Maliki lawyer
- Al-Battani, astronomer and mathematician
- Al-Baladhuri, historian
- Al-Buni, writer and mathematician
- Al-Bakri, geographer and historian
- Al-Baji, Sufi mystic and scholar
- Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi, mathematician, astronomer, Islamic scholar, Sufi, and astrologer
- Ibn al-Baitar, pharmacist, botanist, physician
- Ibn Bassal, botanist and agronomist
- Ibn Bassam, poet and historian
- Ibn Butlan, Arab Christian physician
C
- Cosmas, Arab physician and saint
- Calid, Umayyad prince and alchemist
- Callinicus, historian, orator, rhetorician and sophist
D
- Damian, Arab physician and saint
- Dawud al-Antaki, physician and pharmacist
- Dawud Tai, Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic
- Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi, Hanbali Islamic scholar
- Al-Damiri, zoologist
- Al-Dakhwar, physician
- Al-Darimi, Islamic scholar and muhaddith
- Al-Dimashqi, geographer
- Al-Dimashqi, Abu al-Fadl, writer and economist
- Ibn al-Durayhim, cryptologist
- Ibn Dihya, scholar of Arabic language and Islamic studies,
- Ibn Duraid, geographer, genealogist, poet, and philologist
- Ibn Daqiq al-'Id, one of Islam's great scholars in the fundamentals of Islamic law and belief, and was an authority in the Shafi'i legal school
F
- Fatima al-Fihri, science patron and founder of the University of Al Quaraouiyine
- Fatima bint Musa, theologian and saint
- Al-Farahidi, writer and philologist, compiled the first dictionary of the Arabic language, the Kitab al-Ayn
- Al-Fasi, Abu al-Mahasin, Sufi saint
- Al-Farghani, astronomer, known in Latin as Alfraganus
- Ibn al-Furat, historian
- Ibn al-Farid, Arabic poet, writer, and philosopher
- Ibn Fadlan, writer, traveler, member of an embassy of the Caliph of Baghdad to the Volga Bulgars
G
- Genethlius, sophist and rhetorician from Petra
- Al-Ghafiqi, 12th-century oculist
- Al-Ghassani, physician
H
- Haly Abenragel, astrologer, best known for his Kitāb al-bāri' fi ahkām an-nujūm
- Harbi al-Himyari, alchemist
- Hasan al-Rammah, chemist and engineer
- Hamdallah Mustawfi, geographer
- Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Arab Christian scholar, physician, and scientist
- Heliodorus, sophist of Arab origin
- Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, historian
- Hafsa bint Sirin, scholar of Islam
- Harun ibn Musa, scholar of the Arabic language and Islamic studies.
- Harith al-Muhasibi, philosopher, theologian and Sufi scholar
- Abu'l-Hasan al-Bayhaqi, astronomer and historian
- Abu'l Abbas al-Hijazi, traveler, merchant and sailor
- Abul Hasan Hankari, philosopher, theologian and jurist
- Al-Hamdani, geographer, historian and astronomer
- Al-Humaydī al-Azdi, historian
- Al-Harith ibn Kalada, physician
- Al-Hilli, Twelver Shia theologian
- Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Egyptian historian
- Ibn al-Haj, scholar and theologian writer
- Ibn al-Haytham, physicist and mathematician
- Ibn Hawqal, writer, geographer, and chronicler
- Ibn Hubal, physician, scientist and author of a medical compendium
- Ibn Hisham, historian and biographer
- Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, jurist and theologian
I
- Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, mathematician and astronomer
- Ibrahim al-Nakhai, theologian, Islamic scholar
- Ibrahim al-Nazzam, Mu'tazilite theologian and poet
- Iamblichus, Neoplatonist philosopher, mystic and philosopher
- Iamblichus, novelist and rhetorician
- Ismail Qureshi al Hashmi, Sufi scholar
- Ismail al-Jazari, scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, artisan, artist
- Ibrahim ibn Adham, ascetic Sufi saint
- Ismail ibn al-Ahmar, historian
- Ishaq ibn Hunayn, physician and translator
- Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam, theologian and jurist
- Al-Idrisi, geographer and cartographer
- Ibn Abi Ishaq, earliest known grammarian of the Arabic language
- Ibn Ishaq, historian and hagiographer
J
- Ja'far al-Sadiq, theologian and alchemist
- Jabir ibn Aflah, astronomer and mathematician who invented torquetum
- Jabir ibn Hayyan, polymath who is considered the father of chemistry, emphasized systematic experimentation and did much to free alchemy from superstition and turn it into a science
- Jābir ibn Zayd, theologian and jurist
- Al-Jawaliqi, grammarian and philologist
- Al-Jahiz, historian, biologist and author
- Al-Jayyānī, mathematician and author
- Al-Jawbari, alchemist and writer
- Al-Jabali, physician and mathematician from Al-Andalus
- Al-Jubba'i, Mu'tazili theologian and philosopher
- Al-Jazari, inventor, engineer, artisan, mathematician
- Al-Jarmi, grammarian of Arabic Language
- Ibn al-Jazzar, influential 10th-century physician and author
- Ibn al-Jawzi, heresiographer, historian, hagiographer and philologist
- Ibn Juzayy, historian, scholar and writer of poetry
- Ibn Juljul, physician and pharmacologist
- Ibn Jazla, physician and author of influential treatise on regimen
- Ibn Jubayr, geographer, traveller and poet, known for his detailed travel journals
K
- Khalifah ibn Khayyat, Arab historian
- Khwaja al-Ansari, Islamic scholar
- Al-Khalili, astronomer who compiled extensive tables for astronomical use
- Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Islamic scholar and historian
- Al-Khayyat, astrologer and a student of Mashallah
- Al-Kindi, Arab philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, physician and geographer
- Ibn al-Khabbaza, historian and poet
- Ibn al-Kammad, astronomer
- Ibn al-Kattani, scholar, philosopher, physician, astrologer, man of letters, and poet
- Ibn al-Khatib, polymath, poet, writer, historian, philosopher, physician
- Ibn Kathir, influential Sunni scholar and historian
- Ibn Khaldun, historian, sociologist, and philosopher
L
- Al-Laqani, mufti of Maliki law, a scholar of Hadith, a scholar of theology and author of one of the didactic poems on Ash'ari theology
- Al-Lakhmi, jurist in the Maliki school
M
- Malik ibn Anas, theologian, and hadith traditionist
- Mariam al-Asturlabi,, female astronomer and maker of astrolabes
- Maslama al-Majriti, astronomer, chemist, mathematician, economist
- Moulay Brahim, Sufi saint
- Mujir al-Din, qadi and historian
- Mohammed al-Mahdi al-Fasi, mystic, biographer and historian
- Mohammed al-Arbi al-Fasi, author
- Mohammed ibn Qasim al-Tamimi, hadith scholar and biographer
- Mohammed ibn Nasir, theologian, scholar and physician
- Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, Muslim scholar and saint
- Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Islamic scholar, theologian and famous hadith compiler
- Mujahid ibn Jabr, Islamic scholar and jurist
- Mohammed ibn al-Tayyib, linguist, historian and scholar of fikh and hadith
- Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, Muslim philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
- Muhammad al-Baghdadi, mathematician
- Muhammad Ibn Wasi' Al-Azdi, Islamic scholar of hadith, judge and soldier
- Muhammad al-Shaybani, father of Muslim international law
- Muhammed ibn Umail al-Tamimi, Arab alchemist
- Abu al-Majd ibn Abi al-Hakam, physician, musician and astrologer
- Abu Mikhnaf, historian
- Abu Madyan, influential Andalusian mystic and a Sufi master
- Al-Masudi, historian, geographer and philosopher, traveled to Spain, Russia, India, Sri Lanka and China, spent his last years in Syria and Egypt
- Al-Maʿarri, blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer
- Al-Maqrizi, historian
- Al-Maqdisi, medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim
- Al-Maziri, jurist in the Maliki school
- Al-Mubarrad, grammarian and linguist
- Al-Mubashshir ibn Fatik, mathematician
- Al-Musabbihi, Fatimid historian
- Al-Muradi mechanical engineer and inventor
- Ibn al-Majdi, mathematician and astronomer
- Ibn Manzur, lexicographer and linguist
- Ibn Malik grammarian
- Ibn Mājid, navigator and poet
- Ibn Maḍāʾ, mathematician and grammarian
N
- Niftawayh, grammarian
- Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji, astronomer and philosopher; the Alpetragius crater on the Moon is named after him
- Nadr ibn al-Harith, physician and practitioner
- Nafi ibn al-Harith, physician
- Abu Jaʿfar an-Nahhas, grammarian
- Al-Nawawi, hadith scholar
- Al-Nuwayri, historian and encyclopedist
- Ibn al-Nafis, physician and author, the first to describe pulmonary circulation, compiled a medical encyclopedia and wrote numerous works on other subjects
- Ibn al-Nadim, bibliophile of Baghdad and compiler of the Arabic encyclopedic catalogue known as 'Kitāb al-Fihrist'
Q
- Qadi Ayyad, biographer and historian
- Qatāda ibn Di'āma, traditionalist, hadith, tafsir, Arabic poetry and genealogy
- Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr, Islamic scholar
- Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qalaṣādī, mathematician from Al-Andalus specializing in Islamic inheritance jurisprudence
- Al-Qabisi, astrologer and mathematician
- Al-Qadi al-Nu'man, official historian of the Fatimid caliphs
- Al-Qalqashandi, writer and mathematician
- Al-Qushayri, theologian and philosopher
- Al-Qastallani, jurist and theologian
- Al-Qifti, historian
- Al-Qurtubi, muhaddith and faqih
- Ibn al-Qūṭiyya, Andalusian historian
- Ibn al-Quff, physician
- Ibn al-Qasim, jurist in the Maliki school
- Ibn al-Qalanisi, chronicler and historian
- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, theologian, and spiritual writer
- Ibn Qudamah, theologian
R
- Rabia of Basra, philosopher and Sufi mystic
- Rashidun al-Suri, physician and botanist
- Raja ibn Haywah, architect, jurist and Arabic calligraphist
- Rufaida Al-Aslamia, physician
- Al-Ruhawi, physician
- Ibn Abi Ramtha, physician
- Ibn al‐Raqqam, astronomer, mathematician and physician
- Ibn Rajab, Islamic scholar
S
- Sahnun, Islamic scholar and Maliki jurist
- Said al-Andalusi, astronomer, historian and philosopher
- Said ibn al-Musayyib, jurist and theologian
- Sa'id ibn Aws al-Ansari, linguist
- Shihab al-Umari, historian
- Sayf ibn Umar, historian
- Sufyan al-Thawri, Islamic scholar and jurist
- Sa'id ibn Jubayr, theologian and jurist
- Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah, religious scholar and theologian
- Sidi Mahrez, scholar, jurist and Qadi
- Sibt al-Maridini, astronomer and mathematician
- Sulaiman al-Mahri, geographer
- Abu al-Salt, astronomer, physician and alchemist
- Abu Amr al-Shaybani, lexicographer and collector of Arabic poetry
- Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhzoomi, theologian
- Al-Shafi‘i, Islamic scholar
- Al-Sakhawi, hadith scholar and historian
- Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Twelver Shia theologian
- Al-Shatibi, Islamic legal scholar
- Al-Suwaydi, physician
- Al-Shifa' bint Abdullah, healer, wise woman and practiced folk-medicine
- Al-Sayyid al-Tanukhi, Druze theologian and commentator
- Al-Suhayli, grammarian and scholar of law.
- Al-Ṣaidanānī, astronomer
- Ibn al-Shatir, astronomer, mathematician, engineer and inventor, worked at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, developed an original astronomical model
- Ibn al-Saffar, astronomer
- Ibn al-Samh, mathematician and astronomer
- Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, geographer
- Ibn Sab'in, last philosopher of the Andalus
- Ibn Sidah, grammarian and lexicographer
- Ibn Sirin, mystic, psychologist and interpreter of dreams
- Ibn Sa'd, scholar and Arabian biographer
- Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, historian
- Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, Abu Bakr, Medieval theologian
- Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, Fath al-Din, Medieval theologian
T
- Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf, physician, mathematician, clockmaker and astronomer
- Taqi al-Din al-Subki, scholar, jurist and judge
- Taj al-Din al-Subki, historian and jurist
- Taqi al-Din Muhammad al-Fasi, historian, scholar, hafith, faqih and Maliki qadi
- Theodore Abu Qurrah, theologian and bishop
- Thābit ibn Qurra, mathematician, physician, astronomer, and translator
- Al-Tabarani, Islamic scholar
- Al-Tughrai, physician and alchemist
- Al-Tahawi, jurist and a hadith scholar
- Al-Tighnari, agronomist, botanist, biologist
- Al-Tamimi, physician from Palestine
- Al-Tawhīdī, philosopher and thinker
- Ibn Taymiyyah, theologian and logician
- Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, historian
- Ibn Tawus, astrologer
- Ibn Tufail, Andalusian writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, astronomer, vizier, and court official
- Ibn al-Thahabi, physician and author of the first known alphabetical encyclopedia of medicine
U
- Usama ibn Munqidh, Arab historian, politician, and diplomat
- Urwah ibn Zubayr, historian and jurist
- Umm al-Darda , jurist and theologian
- Umm Darda al-Sughra, jurist and scholar of Islam
- Umm Farwah, hadith narrator and saint
- Al-Uqlidisi, wrote two works on arithmetic, may have anticipated the invention of decimals
- Al-Urḍī, astronomer
- Ibn Abi Usaibia, physician and historian, wrote Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat al-Atibba
- Ibn Uthal, physician
- Ibn Umail,, alchemist and mystic
W
- Waddah al-Yaman, poet, famous for his erotic and romantic poems
- Wasil ibn Ata, theologian and founder of the Mutazilite school of Islamic thought
- Al-Warraq, scholar and critic of religions
- Al-Wafa'i, astronomer
- Ibn al-Wafid, pharmacologist and physician
- Ibn al-Wardi, historian
- Ibn Wahb, jurist of Maliki school
- Ibn Wahshiyya, Arab alchemist and agriculturalist
Y
- Yahya ibn Aktham, jurist
- Yaʿīsh al-Umawī, mathematician, wrote works on mensuration and arithmetic
- Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, mathematician
- Abu Yusuf, Islamic scholar
- Ibn Yunus, mathematician and astronomer
Z
- Zayn al-Din al-Amidi, Islamic scholar and inventor
- Zethos, neoplatonist and disciple of Plotinus
- Zakariya al-Qazwini, physician, astronomer, geographer, and proto-science fiction writer
- Zakariyya al-Ansari, Islamic scholar and mystic
- Zayn al-Abidin, Muslim scholar and Twelver Imam
- Al-Zahrawi, Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, wrote comprehensive medical texts combining Middle-Eastern, Indian and Greco-Roman classical teachings, shaped European surgical procedures until the Renaissance, considered the "father of surgery", wrote Al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume collection of medical practice
- Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, historian and genealogist
- Al-Zarqali, mathematician, influential astronomer, and instrument maker, contributed to the famous Tables of Toledo
- Ibn Zuhr, prominent physician of the Medieval Islamic period
- Ibn Zafar al Siqilli, Arab-Sicilian philosopher and polymath