Bazna, Elyesa [alias Cicero] (b. 1903), spy, was born at Pristina near Belgrade, the son of Albanian parents. He later said that his father, Hafiz Yazan Bazna, was a mullah, and that both his grandfather and one of his uncles were among ...
Article
Bazna, Elyesa [alias Cicero] (b. 1903), spy
Robin Denniston
Image
Khan, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat (1914–1944)
Maker: unknown photographer
Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914–1944) by unknown photographer © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Khan, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat (1914–1944), special operations officer
Deborah E. Van Seters
Khan, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat (1914–1944), special operations officer, was born on 2 January 1914 in Moscow, the eldest of four children of Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927), a Sufi religious teacher and musician, and his wife, Ora Ray Baker (1890–1949). Her father was descended from the last Mughal ...
Article
Litvinenko, Aleksandr Valterovich (1962–2006), intelligence officer and dissident
Mark Galeotti
Litvinenko, Aleksandr Valterovich (1962–2006), intelligence officer and dissident, was born on 30 August 1962 in Voronezh, Soviet Union, the son of Valter Litvinenko, physician for the Interior Ministry, and his wife, Nina, née Belyavskaya. He attended secondary school in Nalchik, in the Caucasus...
Article
Mir Dast (1874–1945), army officer
David Omissi
Mir Dast (1874–1945), army officer, was born at Maidan, Tirah, in the mountainous North-West Frontier Province of British India, on 3 December 1874. His family were of the Afridi tribe of Pathans, a Muslim people renowned for their hardiness and fighting abilities. Because of their martial qualities, the Pathans of the ...
Image
Mir Dast (1874–1945)
Maker: unknown photographer
In
Mir Dast (1874–1945) by unknown photographer, 1915 reproduced with the permission of Leeds University Library
Article
Nuri al-Said (1888–1958), army officer and prime minister of Iraq
Michael T. Thornhill
Nuri al-Said (1888–1958), army officer and prime minister of Iraq, was born in December 1888 in Baghdad, the only son (there were also four daughters) of Said Taha (d. 1904), a minor official in Baghdad's Ottoman government, and his wife, Fatima. The family lived modestly in the northern part of the city, with fellow Arabs (rather than Turks) as neighbours. As a ...
Article
Tiwana, Sir (Muhammad) Umar Hayat, nawab (1874–1944), landowner and army officer
Raymond Callahan
Tiwana, Sir (Muhammad) Umar Hayat, nawab (1874–1944), landowner and army officer, was born at Kalra, Punjab, on 1 October 1874. He was a member of the class of conservative Muslim landowners whose loyal co-operation was a crucial element in the reconstruction of British rule after the events of 1857–8. His father, ...
Image
'Urabi, Ahmad Muhammad (1841–1911)
Maker: unknown engraver
In
Ahmad Muhammad 'Urabi (1841–1911) by unknown engraver, pubd 1882 (after N. Fettel & Co.) © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
'Urabi ['Arabi], Ahmad Muhammad [Aḣmad Muḣammad 'Urabī; known as Arabi Pasha] (1841–1911), army officer and politician in Egypt
Eugene Rogan
'Urabi ['Arabi], Ahmad Muhammad [Aḣmad Muḣammad 'Urabī; known as Arabi Pasha] (1841–1911), army officer and politician in Egypt, was born on 31 March 1841 (7 Safar 1257 according to the Islamic calendar) in the village of Huriyyah Razna, near the delta town of ...
