Rulers and sultans

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan: Arabic offices, new coins and the octagonal domed shrine Abd al-Rahman I: the emir who founded Cordoba's Great Mosque Abd al-Rahman III: the Cordoba caliph who founded Madinat al-Zahra Ahmad ibn Tulun: the administrator who built Cairo's red-brick mosque Akbar: the 13-year-old king who gave the Mughal empire firm foundations Al-Mansur, the Abbasid caliph who built Baghdad's Round City Al-Walid I: the caliph who built Damascus's Great Mosque and the city of Anjar Alauddin Khalji: control of markets and the measurement of land Alexander the Great: from Macedon to the Jhelum and the Makran desert Alp Arslan: the Seljuk sultan who united the empire Amir Timur: Samarkand's monuments and the start of the Timurid era Ashoka the Great: the edicts he had carved in stone after the Kalinga war Aurangzeb Alamgir: half a century on the throne and the Mughal Empire at its largest Babur: the Fergana prince who founded a new empire in India Baybars: Ain Jalut commander who built the Mamluk state Charles IV: the king who shaped Prague and founded Central Europe's first university Cyrus the Great: founder of the Achaemenid Empire Firuz Shah Tughlaq: canals, new cities and Ashoka's pillars Genghis Khan: the Mongol chief who founded the world's largest land empire Ghiyas ud-Din Balban: from deputy of the sultanate to sultan Harun al-Rashid: the caliph of history and king of the tales Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik: the caliph of Rusafa, desert palaces and an orderly treasury Iltutmish: the sultan who made Delhi the capital Ismail Samani: the emir who made Bukhara a capital Jalaluddin Mangburni: the sultan who leapt into the Indus King Dinis: Portugal's farmer king and founder of its first university Maharaja Ranjit Singh: the Gujranwala chieftain who made Lahore his capital Mahmud of Ghazni: the empire that stretched from Ghazni to Punjab Malik-Shah I: Isfahan, Omar Khayyam and the era of the Jalali calendar Mansa Musa: the king of Mali whose gold made him famous as far as Europe Mehmed the Conqueror: the fall of Constantinople and the making of the Ottoman Empire Mir Nasir Khan Noori: the administrator and commander of Kalat state Muhammad V: the Granada sultan who built the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra Muhammad bin Tughluq: experiments with a new capital and new currency Muhammad of Ghor: from the hills of Ghor to Delhi Napoleon Bonaparte: general of the Revolution, Emperor of France, prisoner of Saint Helena Orhan: the Ottoman ruler who made Bursa his capital Qabus ibn Wushmgir: the scholar-ruler of Gorgan and his brick tower Qutb ud-Din Aibak: from slave to sultan and the start of the Qutb Minar Razia Sultan: the only woman to sit on the throne of Delhi Saladin: victor of Hattin and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty Shah Jahan: the emperor whose reign was the golden age of Mughal architecture Sher Shah Suri: five years of rule, centuries of influence Suleiman the Magnificent: the Ottoman sultan known as "the Lawgiver" Sultan Sanjar: the Seljuk ruler of Merv and his domed mausoleum Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, Kashmir's Budshah: bridges, canals and crafts Tipu Sultan: the Mysore ruler who made the rocket a weapon of war Tughril Beg: founder of the Seljuk Empire Umar bin Abdul Aziz: the two-and-a-half-year caliphate remembered for centuries Yusuf ibn Tashfin: the founder of the city of Marrakesh