Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Military Leaders & Strategists

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Salah Reis

صالح ريس

Egypt

1488 – 1556 (68 years old)

Legendary naval admiral and Beylerbey of Algiers (1552–1556) who commanded Hayreddin Barbarossa's right wing at the Battle of Preveza and expelled Spanish forces from Peñón de Vélez.

Algiers, Algeria

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Military Leaders & Strategists

23

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Salah Rais

صالح ريس

Egypt

c. 1488 – 1556 (68 years old)

Famed 16th-century naval strategist and Dey of Algiers who expanded Algerian sovereign territory across the Sahara and defeated Portuguese and Spanish fleets across North Africa.

Algiers, Algeria

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Military Leaders & Strategists

41

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Hayreddin Barbarossa (Khizr Reis)

بارباروس خير الدين باشا / Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa

Greece

1 – 1546 (68 years old)

Grand Admiral (Kapudan Pasha) of the Ottoman Navy who defeated the Holy League at the Battle of Preveza, establishing Ottoman naval supremacy across the Mediterranean.

Beşiktaş (Istanbul), Turkey

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Military Leaders & Strategists

37

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Louis II de La Trémoille (The Knight Without Reproach)

Louis II de La Trémoille

France

1460 – 1525 (64 years old)

Premier French general of the Italian Wars who won the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, conquered Milan for Louis XII, and fell fighting at Pavia.

Thouars, France

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Military Leaders & Strategists

34

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Pierre Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard

Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard

France

1 – 1524 (48 years old)

French knight and commander immortalized as 'The Knight Without Fear and Beyond Reproach', who held the bridge of Garigliano single-handedly.

Grenoble, France

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Military Leaders & Strategists

33

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Afonso de Albuquerque (The Caesar of the East)

Afonso de Albuquerque

Portugal

1 – 1515 (62 years old)

Portuguese naval admiral, general, and 2nd Governor of India whose audacious naval strategy conquered Goa, Malacca, and Ormuz, securing the spice routes.

Lisbon, Portugal

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Military Leaders & Strategists

38

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Le Loi

Lê Lợi (Lê Thái Tổ)

Vietnam

1385 – 1433 (48 years old)

Vietnamese national hero and founder of the Later Le Dynasty who led the ten-year Lam Son Uprising against Ming Chinese occupation, immortalized by the Legend of the Returned Sword at Hoan Kiem Lake.

Tho Xuan (Thanh Hoa), Vietnam

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Military Leaders & Strategists

37

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Zheng He

郑和 (三宝太监)

China

1371 – c. 1433 CE (62 years old)

Ming Dynasty grand admiral and diplomat who commanded seven epic treasure fleet voyages across the Indian Ocean from Southeast Asia to Arabia and East Africa, decades before Columbus.

Nanjing (Jiangsu), China

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Military Leaders & Strategists

35

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Tamerlane (Timur)

تیمور لنگ (Timūr Gurkānī)

Uzbekistan

1336 – 1405 (68 years old)

Turco-Mongol conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire who never lost a battle across forty years of campaigns from Delhi to the Mediterranean, transforming Samarkand into a Renaissance jewel.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

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Military Leaders & Strategists

35

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Sir John Hawkwood (Giovanni Acuto)

Sir John Hawkwood / Giovanni Acuto

Great Britain

1 – 1394 (71 years old)

Legendary English mercenary captain (condottiero) who led the White Company in Italy, renowned for speed, tactical cunning, and professional discipline.

Florence, Italy

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Military Leaders & Strategists

40

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Murad I

مراد الأول (Hüdavendigâr)

Turkey

1326 – 1389 (62 years old)

Third Ottoman Sultan who transformed the Ottoman state into an empire, instituted the Devshirme and Janissary corps, conquered Adrianople (Edirne), and died victorious at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

Bursa (and Pristina Cenotaph), Turkey

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Military Leaders & Strategists

38

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Saint Dmitry Donskoy

Дмитрий Иванович Донской

Russia

1350 – 1389 (38 years old)

Grand Prince of Moscow who unified the Russian principalities and won the historic Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, breaking the myth of Tatar-Mongol invincibility.

Moscow, Russia

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Military Leaders & Strategists

34

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Bertrand du Guesclin (The Eagle of Brittany)

Bertrand du Guesclin

France

1 – 1380 (60 years old)

Constable of France and master of Fabian guerrilla warfare who recaptured nearly all territories lost to England in the Hundred Years' War.

Saint-Denis (Paris), France

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Military Leaders & Strategists

35

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Edward of Woodstock (The Black Prince)

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales

Great Britain

1330 – 1376 (45 years old)

Prince of Wales and England's greatest chivalric warrior of the Hundred Years' War who won the Battle of Poitiers and captured King John II of France.

Canterbury, United Kingdom

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Military Leaders & Strategists

34

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Orhan

أورخان غازي (Orhan Gazi)

Turkey

c. 1281 CE – 1362 (81 years old)

Second ruler of the Ottoman dynasty who captured Bursa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia, established the first Ottoman standing army (Janissaries), and crossed into Europe at Gallipoli in 1354.

Tophane Park (Bursa), Turkey

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Military Leaders & Strategists

33

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Geoffroi de Charny (Bearer of the Oriflamme)

Geoffroi de Charny

France

1 – 1356 (52 years old)

French knight, military theorist, and bearer of the sacred royal Oriflamme banner who authored the Book of Chivalry and died shielding King John II at Poitiers.

Poitiers, France

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Military Leaders & Strategists

31

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Kusunoki Masashige (The Great Loyalist)

楠木正成

Japan

1 – 1336 (42 years old)

Fourteenth-century samurai general and master of mountain siege defense who defended Emperor Go-Daigo and died heroically at the Battle of Minatogawa.

Kobe, Japan

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Military Leaders & Strategists

31

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Osman I

عثمان بن أرطغرل (عثمان غازي)

Sultanate of Rum

c. 1258 CE – c. 1324 CE (66 years old)

Founder of the Ottoman Empire and first ruler of the Ottoman dynasty, who expanded his small Turkmen principality in Sogut against the Byzantine Empire and had the prophetic 'Osman's Dream'.

Tophane Park (Bursa), Turkey

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