Rank Name Religious Affiliation Influence

Prophet of Islam;
conqueror of Arabia; Hart
recognized that ranking
Muhammad first might be
controversial, but felt that, from a
1 Muhammad Islam secular historian's perspective,
this was the correct choice
because Muhammad is the only
man to have been both a founder
of a major world religion and a
major military/political leader.
More
Anglican (rejected
Trinitarianism, i.e., physicist; theory of
2 Isaac Newton Athanasianism; believed in the universal gravitation; laws
Arianism of motion
of the Primitive Church)
3 Jesus Christ * Judaism; Christianity founder of Christianity
4 Buddha Hinduism; Buddhism founder of Buddhism
5 Confucius Confucianism founder of Confucianism
proselytizer of
6 St. Paul Judaism; Christianity
Christianity
7 Ts'ai Lun Chinese traditional religion inventor of paper
developed movable type;
8 Johann Gutenberg Catholic
printed Bibles
Christopher explorer; led Europe to
9 Catholic
Columbus Americas
physicist; relativity;
10 Albert Einstein Jewish
Einsteinian physics
11 Louis Pasteur Catholic scientist; pasteurization
astronomer; accurately
12 Galileo Galilei Catholic described heliocentric solar
system
Platonism / Greek influential Greek
13 Aristotle
philosophy philosopher
Platonism / Greek mathematician; Euclidian
14 Euclid
philosophy geometry
15 Moses Judaism major prophet of Judaism
biologist; described
Anglican (nominal); Darwinian evolution, which
16 Charles Darwin
Unitarian had theological impact on
many religions
17 Shih Huang Ti Chinese traditional religion Chinese emperor
18 Augustus Caesar Roman state paganism ruler
astronomer; taught
19 Nicolaus Copernicus Catholic (priest)
heliocentricity
Antoine Laurent father of modern chemistry;
20 Catholic
Lavoisier philosopher; economist
Roman emperor who
completely legalized
Christianity, leading to its
status as state religion.
Convened the First Council
of Nicaea that produced the
Constantine the Roman state paganism; Nicene Creed, which
21
Great Christianity rejected Arianism (one of
two major strains of
Christian thought) and
established Athanasianism
(Trinitarianism, the other
strain) as "official
doctrine."
22 James Watt Presbyterian (lapsed) developed steam engine
physicist; chemist;
23 Michael Faraday Sandemanian discovery of magneto-
electricity
James Clerk Presbyterian; Anglican; physicist; electromagnetic
24
Maxwell Baptist spectrum
founder of Protestantism
25 Martin Luther Catholic; Lutheran
and Lutheranism
first president of United
26 George Washington Episcopalian
States
Jewish; Lutheran;
founder of Marxism,
27 Karl Marx Atheist;
Marxist Communism
Marxism/Communism
Orville and Wilbur
28 United Brethren inventors of airplane
Wright
29 Genghis Khan Mongolian shamanism Mongol conqueror
economist; philosopher;
expositor of capitalism;
30 Adam Smith Liberal Protestant
author: The Theory of
Moral Sentiments
31 Edward de Vere Catholic; Anglican literature; also wrote 6
a.k.a. William volumes about philosophy
 Shakespeare and religion
chemist; physicist; atomic
32 John Dalton Quaker theory; law of partial
pressures (Dalton's law)
33 Alexander the Great Greek state paganism conqueror
34 Napoleon Bonaparte Catholic (nominal) French conqueror
Congregationalist; inventor of light bulb,
35 Thomas Edison
agnostic phonograph, etc.
Antony van microscopes; studied
36 Dutch Reformed
Leeuwenhoek microscopic life
William T.G.
37 ?? pioneer in anesthesiology
Morton
38 Guglielmo Marconi Catholic and Anglican inventor of radio
Nazism; born/raised in, but conqueror; led Axis Powers
39 Adolf Hitler
rejected Catholicism in WWII
Platonism / Greek
40 Plato founder of Platonism
philosophy
British political and
41 Oliver Cromwell Puritan (Protestant)
military leader
Alexander Graham
42 Unitarian/Universalist inventor of telephone *
Bell
penicillin; advances in
43 Alexander Fleming Catholic bacteriology, immunology
and chemotherapy
raised Puritan (Anglican); philosopher and liberal
44 John Locke
Liberal Christian theologian
Ludwig van
45 Catholic composer
Beethoven
a founder of quantum
mechanics; discovered
46 Werner Heisenberg Lutheran principle of uncertainty;
head of Nazi Germany's
nuclear program
an inventor/pioneer of
47 Louis Daguerre ??
photography
National hero of Venezuela,
48 Simon Bolivar Catholic (nominal); Atheist Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
and Bolivia
Rationalist philosopher and
49 Rene Descartes Catholic
mathematician
50 Michelangelo Catholic painter; sculptor; architect
51 Pope Urban II Catholic called for First Crusade
'Umar ibn al- Second Caliph; expanded
52 Islam
Khattab Muslim empire
king of India who
53 Asoka Buddhism converted to and spread
Buddhism
Greek state paganism; Early Christian
54 St. Augustine
Manicheanism; Catholic theologian
described the circulation of
blood; wrote Essays on the
55 William Harvey Anglican (nominal) Generation of Animals, the
basis for modern
embryology
physicist; pioneer of
56 Ernest Rutherford ??
subatomic physics
Protestant reformer;
57 John Calvin Protestant; Calvinism
founder of Calvinism
Catholic (Augustinian
58 Gregor Mendel Mendelian genetics
monk)
59 Max Planck Protestant physicist; thermodynamics
principal discoverer of
60 Joseph Lister Quaker antiseptics which greatly
reduced surgical mortality
Nikolaus August built first four-stroke
61 ??
Otto internal combustion engine
Spanish conqueror in South
62 Francisco Pizarro Catholic
America; defeated Incas
conquered Mexico for
Spain; through war and
introduction of new
63 Hernando Cortes Catholic
diseases he largely
destroyed Aztec
civilization
3rd president of United
64 Thomas Jefferson Episcopalian; Deist
States
65 Queen Isabella I Catholic Spanish ruler
Russian Orthodox; Atheist; revolutionary and ruler of
66 Joseph Stalin
Marxism USSR
67 Julius Caesar Roman state paganism Roman emperor
 William the laid foundation of modern
68 Catholic
Conqueror England
founded Freudian school
of
Jewish; atheist; Freudian
69 Sigmund Freud psychology/psychoanalysis
psychology/psychoanalysis
(i.e., the "religion of
Freudianism")
discoverer of the
70 Edward Jenner Anglican
vaccination for smallpox
Wilhelm Conrad
71 ?? discovered X-rays
Roentgen
Johann Sebastian
72 Lutheran; Catholic composer
Bach
73 Lao Tzu Taoism founder of Taoism
raised in Jansenism; writer and philosopher;
74 Voltaire
later Deist wrote Candide
astronomer; planetary
75 Johannes Kepler Lutheran
motions
initiated the atomic age;
76 Enrico Fermi Catholic
father of atom bomb
physicist; mathematician;
77 Leonhard Euler Calvinist differential and integral
calculus and algebra
born Protestant;
Jean-Jacques converted as a teen to French deistic philosopher
78
Rousseau Catholic; and author
later Deist
wrote The Prince
79 Nicoli Machiavelli Catholic (influential political
treatise)
economist; wrote Essay on
80 Thomas Malthus Anglican (cleric)
the Principle of Population
U.S. President who led first
81 John F. Kennedy Catholic successful effort by humans
to travel to another "planet"
endocrinologist; developed
82 Gregory Pincus Jewish
birth-control pill
founder of Manicheanism,
once a world religion
83 Mani Manicheanism
which rivaled Christianity
in strength
 Russian Orthodox;
84 Lenin Atheist; Russian ruler
Marxism/Communism
85 Sui Wen Ti Chinese traditional religion unified China
navigator; discovered route
86 Vasco da Gama Catholic from Europe to India
around Cape Hood
87 Cyrus the Great Zoroastrianism founder of Persian empire
forged Russia into a great
88 Peter the Great Russian Orthodox
European nation
founder of Maoism,
Atheist; Communism;
89 Mao Zedong Chinese form of
Maoism
Communism
philosopher; delineated
90 Francis Bacon Anglican
inductive scientific method
developed automobile;
achievement in
91 Henry Ford Protestant
manufacturing and
assembly
philosopher; founder of a
92 Mencius Confucianism
school of Confucianism
93 Zoroaster Zoroastrianism founder of Zoroastrianism
British monarch; restored
94 Queen Elizabeth I Anglican Church of England to
power after Queen Mary
Russian premier who
95 Mikhail Gorbachev Russian Orthodox helped end Communism in
USSR
unified Upper and Lower
96 Menes Egyptian paganism
Egypt
Holy Roman Empire
97 Charlemagne Catholic created with his baptism
in 800 AD
98 Homer Greek paganism epic poet
Roman emperor;
reconquered Mediterranean
99 Justinian I Catholic empire; accelerated
Catholic-Monophysite
schism
100 Mahavira Hinduism; Jainism founder of Jainism
Source of list of names: Hart, Michael H. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential
Persons in History, Revised and Updated for the Nineties. New York: Carol Publishing
Group/Citadel Press; first published in 1978, reprinted with minor revisions (reflected
above) in 1992.

In the afterword to his book The 100, Michael H. Hart listed 100 runners-up, all of which
are listed here. The book's afterword also included brief discussions about ten of these
runners-up (about one page each). These discussions include notes about their influence
and about they they were not included in the top 100. Hart states that these ten
individuals should not be thought of as numbers 101-110 on the list. The ten runners-up
discussed are: St. Thomas Aquinas; Archimedes; Charles Babbage; Cheops; Marie Curie;
Benjamin Franklin; Mohandas Gandhi ; Abraham Lincoln; Ferdinand Magellan;
Leonardo da Vinci. The other runners-up are simply listed, without further details or
discussion.

Muhammad

Many Muslims have written to us about this webpage. All that have written to us are in
agreement with Hart's assessment of Muhammad's top-ranked place on this list, but many
have written to disagree with parts of Hart's description of Muhammad. In particular, a
number of correspondents have written to point out that Muhammad is not the author of
the Qu'ran, but is in fact the Prophet through whom Allah delivered the Qu'ran to
humanity. Hamzah Jaradat's notes on this are representative of this discussion:
Mohammad is the not the author of the Qu'ran.

Excerpt from Hart's book:

My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may
surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in
history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels...

Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world's great religions, and became an
immensely effective political leader. Today, thirteen centuries after his death, his
influence is still powerful and pervasive... Like all religions, Islam exerts an enormous
influence upon the lives of its followers. It is for this reason that the founders of the
world's great religions all figure prominently in this book. Since there are roughly twice
as many Christians as Moslems in the world, it may initially seem strange that
Muhammad has been ranked higher than Jesus. There are two principal reasons for that
decision. First, Muhammad played a far more important role in the development of Islam
than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the
main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism),
St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the
author of a large portion of the New Testament.

Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical
and moral principles. In addition, he played the key role in proselytizing the new faith,
and in establishing the religious practices of Islam. Moreover, he is the author of the
Moslem holy scriptures, the Koran, a collection of certain of Muhammad's insights that
he believed had been directly revealed to him by Allah. Most of these utterances were
copied more or less faithfully during Muhammad's lifetime and were collected together in
authoritative form not long after his death. The Koran therefore, closely represents
Muhammad's ideas and teachings and to a considerable extent his exact words. No such
detailed compilation of the teachings of Christ has survived. Since the Koran is at least as
important to Moslems as the Bible is to Christians, the influence of Muhammed through
the medium of the Koran has been enormous It is probable that the relative influence of
Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus Christ and St.
Paul on Christianity. On the purely religious level, then, it seems likely that Muhammad
has been as influential in human history as Jesus.

Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In

fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most
influential political leader of all time... the Arab conquests of the seventh century have
continued to play an important role in human history, down to the present day. It is this
unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles
Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.

Additional Comments From Readers

M. S. Abdullah's
Reasons Why Muhammad (Not Jesus)
Should be Ranked as Most Influential Person in History
M. S. Abdullah (email address: msabdullah@bigpond.com) sent us this
letter and list on 25 August 2004:

To the owner of www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html

I am a comparative religion student who would like to share my views on this list. I
would like to shed some light as to the order of Muhammad and Jesus on this list. Please
feel free to use this e-mail on your website.

I believe that Muhammad should be the first in the list even though Jesus was a great
man, Muhammad was an even greater man and a greater influence to humanity. Michael
Hart (a non-Muslim, in particular a Christian) was correct in taking a non-biased view
and choosing Muhammad.

Just look at the statistics and history

• Christianity (1.9+ billion people). 600 year head start on Islam

• Islam (1.5+ billion people). Catching up at a rate of 10:1. Many of the converts
are Atheists or Christians (including many Church leaders and ministers). By
2025 Muslims will out number Christians.
• In America pre 9/11 40000+ people convert to Islam per year, post 9/11, people
have became curious about what makes Muslims tick. They are now discovering
that what Muslims like these do are completely in the opposite direction to the
teachings of Muhammad and Islam, hence why the number of converts has
increased to 78000+ a year.
• Jesus' message was 2.4 years, Muhammad's 23 years
• Jesus' had 120 followers at the end of his time on earth Muhammad had millions
• Muhammad confirmed Jesus and believed in him, as Jesus said to his disciples
whilst in the Garden of Gethsemane that someone would come to confirm him
• Jesus said he came to the tribe of Israel only, Muhammad said he came to all
mankind.
• The different denominations of Christianity don't agree with each other about
Mary, Jesus, the trinity, the many versions and revisions of the Bible etc, whereas
the different denominations of Islam agree that Muhammad is the final Prophet,
Jesus is a Prophet and performed miracles, God is One and Only, and the exact
Quran as at the time of Muhammad is still used today by all the denominations,
and the originals are still available.
• 10's of millions of Muslims have memorised the entire Quran all over the world,
whereas no Christian has memorised the bible and if they did they would have to
memorise their own version and would have to update their memorisations every
time a new revision was released.
• The bible that we know today was written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (who
are they? Real name? Last name?) and Paul (Saul of Tarsus: A Christian Killer)
who preached to the Gentiles which Jesus said not to do. None where direct
disciples of Jesus.
• What is known as Apocrypha today is the Gospels that the Roman (Origin
Pagans: worshiped many gods, human gods etc) Catholic Church wanted to
destroy because it denies the trinity and the divinity of Jesus and reveals the
coming of another (Muhammad). "Eg. The Gospel of Barnabas was accepted as a
Canonical Gospel in the Churches of Alexandria till 325 C.E. In 325 C.E., the
Nicene Council was held, where it was ordered that all original Gospels in
Hebrew script should be destroyed. An Edict was issued that any one in
possession of these Gospels will be put to death" (http://www.barnabas.net/)
• Jesus did not found Christianity and the Church (Paul did). Muhammad founded
Islam.
• Muhammad taught a way of life from birth to death. Things as simple as one
should sit down when they put their shoes on etc (This has been medically proven
that putting your shoes on whilst standing and hunching causes lower back pain).
He taught every day life issues etc.
• The Quran contains many scientific information that has been confirmed by
science only in the last century. Would Muhammad have known all this stuff or is
he a lucky guesser?
 • The world as we know it today was influenced by Islam, scientifically,
mathematically, medically, agriculturally as well as through art etc. Islam
promoted education for both men and women whereas the Church forbade it and
called it blasphemy and the penalty was death to anyone who would go against
the Church (http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/ a documentary by non-Muslim
American historians and lecturers in religion)
• Islam is in no way derived from Zoroastrianism but follows on from Judaism as
Christianity did.

The list can go on for many pages, but I think that has said enough.

So looking at the facts from a subjective point of view shows that there should be no
doubt that Muhammad should be the first on the list.

Regards
SYED IBRAHIM.