






Hamed Abdel-Samad is a German-Egyptian author and political scientist. A member of the Society of the Muslim Brothers during his university days, Hamed Abdel-Samad later questioned his own beliefs and published a controversial book titled My Farewell from Heaven, which he said was neither a call to renounce the Muslim faith nor an attack on his culture.

Theon of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and scholar. He is credited with editing and arranging Euclid's prominent work Elements. He also wrote commentaries on works by Ptolemy and Euclid. Theon of Alexandria's daughter Hypatia also went on to become a famed mathematician.

Taher Elgamal is an Egyptian entrepreneur and cryptographer. Widely regarded as the father of SSL, Elgamal is best known for his work at Netscape Communications Corporation where he developed Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which helped establish a secure and private communications on the Internet. In 2019, Taher Elgamal was honored with the prestigious Marconi Prize along with Paul Kocher.


Tamim al-Barghouti is a Palestinian-Egyptian columnist, poet, and political scientist. Dubbed the poet of Jerusalem, Tamim is best known for his critically acclaimed poem In Jerusalem, which he presented in a television competition show called Prince of Poets in 2007. Tamim al-Barghouti has also worked as a professor at Georgetown University and the Free University of Berlin.

Menelaus of Alexandria was a Greek astronomer and mathematician. Sphaerica, his only book to have survived in the form of an Arabic translation, deals with the geometry of the sphere and introduces the concept of spherical triangle. The Arabic version of the book was translated again by Francesco Maurolico, a 16th century mathematician and astronomer.

A 14th-century Arab Muslim author and theologian from Egypt, Ad-Damīrī was an expert on cannon law and natural history. He is remembered for authoring the first Arabic zoological encyclopedia, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān. He lectured at various institutes of Cairo and was also a well-known mystic, renowned for his religious activities.

