List of Muslim Nobel laureates

Distribution of Muslims in Nobel Prizes between 1901-2015: twelve Nobel Prize winners have been Muslims or a total of 1.4% of all Nobel prizes.

'The Norwegian Nobel Institute' assists the Norwegian Nobel Committee in selecting Nobel Peace laureates and to organise the annual Nobel event in Oslo.

The Nobel Prize (Swedish pronunciation: [noˈbɛl], Swedish definite form, singular: Nobelpriset, Norwegian: Nobelprisen) is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel established the prizes in 1895. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals,^[1] of whom 12 have been Muslim.

The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901.^[2] An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969.^[3][4] The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the other prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and economics.

Muslims make up over 23% of the world's population.^[5][6][7] And as of 2015, twelve Nobel Prize winners have been Muslims. More than half of the twelve Muslim Nobel laureates were awarded the prize in the 21st century. Seven of the twelve winners have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, including a controversial award to Yasser Arafat. The recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, Abdus Salam, was a member of the Ahmadiyya community of Pakistan. Aziz Sancar is the second Turkish Nobel laureate and the first Muslim to be awarded Nobel prize in the field of molecular biology in 2015 .

Peace

Year	image	Laureate	Country and profession	Rationale	comment
1978		Anwar al-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981)	Egyptian President	He, along with Menachem Begin was awarded 1978 Nobel Peace Prize "for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David on September 17, 1978".[8]	The first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
1994		Yasser Arafat (24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004)	Palestinian politician	The 1994 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East".[16][17]	The first Muslim Palestinian to receive a Nobel Prize.[9][18][19][20][21][22]
2003		Shirin Ebadi (born 21 June 1947)	Iranian Human Rights Activist	The 2003 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ebadi "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children".[23]	The first and only Iranian to receive a Nobel Prize. She was also the first Muslim woman to receive such an honor.[9][24][25][26][27] Note that Doris Lessing born and raised for 5 years in modern day Iran is a fellow laureate.
2005		Mohamed El Baradei (born June 17, 1942)	Egyptian diplomat	The 2005 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to El Baradei and IAEA "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way".[28][29]	He was the second Egyptian to be awarded Nobel Peace Prize (2005).[9][30][31][32][33]
2006		Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940)	Bangladeshi economist and founder of Grameen Bank.	The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Yunus and Grameen Bank "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below".[34]	The first Bangladeshi and Bengali Muslim Nobel laureate, and overall, the third person from Bengal to win a Nobel prize.[9][35][36][37][38][39][40]
2011		Tawakel Karman (born 7 February 1979)	Human rights activist based in Yemen. A prominent leader in the Arab Spring.	The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly given to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Karman "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".[41]	The first Arab woman and first and only Yemeni to receive a Nobel Prize.[42][43][44][45][46]
2014		Malala Yousafzai (born 12 July 1997)	Pakistani activist, working for rights to education for children in Pakistan.	The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly given to Kailash Satyarthi and Yousafzai, "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".[47]	At the age of 17, Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel Prize recipient ever.[48] She is also the second Pakistani and first ethnic Pashtun to be awarded a Nobel Prize.[49]

Literature

Year	image	Laureate	Country and profession	Rationale	comment
1988		Naguib Mahfouz (11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006)	Egyptian author, noted for his contribution to modern Arabic literature	The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was given to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind".[50][51]	The first Muslim author to receive such a prize.[9][52][53]
2006		Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952)	Turkish author famous for his novels My Name Is Red and Snow	The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures".[54][55]	The first Turk to receive the Nobel Prize, He describes himself as a Cultural Muslim who associates the historical and cultural identification with the religion while not believing in a personal connection to God.[9][56][57][58]

Sciences

Physics

Year	image	Laureate	Country and profession	Rationale	comment
1979		Mohammad Abdus Salam (29 January 1926 – 21 November 1996)	Pakistani physicist	The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow, Salam, and Steven Weinberg "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current".[59]	He is the first Pakistani to receive the award. He is also the first and only Pakistani scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize.[60][61] He was a member of the world wide Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which the government of Pakistan declared to be non-Muslim in Pakistan in a 1974 constitutional amendment.[62]

Chemistry

Year	image	Laureate	Country and profession	Rationale	comment
1999		Ahmed Zewail (26 February 1946 - 2 August 2016)[63]	Egyptian scientist	The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy".[64]	He is the first Muslim chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the second Muslim scientist.[9][65][66][67][68]
2015		Aziz Sancar (born September 8, 1946)	Turkish scientist	The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Aziz Sancar "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair"[69]	He is the first Turkish chemist, and the second Turkish to date to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the third Muslim scientist.[70][71]

Further reading

Articles

• Mysticism in Contemporary Islamic Political Thought:Orhan Pamuk and Abdolkarim Soroush by John von Heyking,University of Lethbridge^[72]
• Islam, Melancholy, and Sad, Concrete Minarets: The Futility of Narratives In Orhan Pamuk's" The Black Book by Ian Almond^[73]

Books

• The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times by Mohamed El Baradei.^[74]
• Islam, Orientalism and Intellectual History: Modernity and the Politics of Exclusion since Ibn Khaldun (Library of Middle East History) by Mohammad R. Salama ISBN 1848850050 and ISBN 1848850050.^[75]
• Orhan Pamuk and the Politics of Turkish Identity: From Islam to Istanbul by Erdag Goknar, ISBN 0415505380, ISBN 978-0415505383, Routledge Publication.^[76]

Biography

• Cosmic Anger: Abdus Salam - The First Muslim Nobel Scientist. by Gordon Fraser ,ISBN 0199697124 & ISBN 978-0199697120.^[77]
• Yasser Arafat (Biography (Lerner Hardcover)) by George Headlam-ISBN 0822550040 & ISBN 978-0822550044.^[78]
• Anwar Sadat: Visionary Who Dared by Joseph Finklestone.^[79]

Autobiography

• Iran Awakening: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country (2007) by Shirin Ebadi (ISBN 9780676978025).^[80]
• Ahmed Zewail Autobiography.^[81]
• Banker to the Poor: The Autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank. ISBN 0195795377 & ISBN 978-0195795370.^[82]
• Sadat, Anwar (1978). In Search of Identity: An Autobiography. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0060137427. ^[83]

See also

• List of Nobel Peace Laureates
• List of black Nobel Laureates
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• List of Christian Nobel laureates
• List of Muslim scientists
• Lists of Muslims
• Lists of people by belief
• List of Nobel laureates by country
• List of Nobel laureates
• List of female Nobel laureates
• Lists of People
• List of Hindu Nobel laureates

References

The year of receiving Nobel Prize is given after each Nobel Laureate in this article. For verification of candidacy of above listed Nobel Laureates, please go to nobelprize.org,^[84] and search the corresponding year of reception of Nobel Prize in the respective field.

External links

• “Muslim Nobel Prize Winners”, 'BZNotes', accessed March 21, 2012.
• “Muslim Nobel Prize Winners”, Scribd, accessed March 21, 2012.
• “Nobel Laureates and the Muslim World” by Saleem H. Ali, Newsvine, February 14, 2010, retrieved March 21, 2012.
• “Nobel laureates of the Islamic world” - S Iftikhar Murshed, The News International, April 3, 2011, retrieved March 21, 2012.
• “Professor Abdus Salam”, accessed April 4, 2012.
• “No Nobels for the Muslim World” by Aziz Akhmad, The Express Tribune, published October 6, 2011, retrieved March 19, 2012.
• “Muslim Nobel laureates: Muslim economist, writer win Nobel prizes”,accessed March 24, 2012.
• “Abdus Salam, 'First Muslim Nobel Laureate'”, ‘The Culture Trip’, accessed March 21, 2012.

“Abdus Salam was a theoretical physicist who became the first Pakistani and the first Muslim to be awarded the Nobel Prize in the sciences.”

• “Dr. Abdus Salam: Nobel Laureate in Physics”,accessed April 4, 2012.
• “Tawakul Karman speaks: Islam Supports Democracy”, 'Onislam', December 10, 2011, accessed March 21, 2012.
• “A Muslim woman's place is in society: Nobel Laureate”, France 24, dated November 2, 2009, retrieved March 21, 2012.
• “Nobel Prize reflects women's struggle in the Muslim world”, retrieved March 19, 2012.
• “Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakkul Karman Profile: The Mother of Yemen's revolution”, The Huffington Post, dated October 7, 2011, retrieved March 19, 2012.
• “Dear ‘World Community’: You Are Not Our Equals” by William A. Levinson, American Thinker, May 31, 2011, retrieved March 21, 2012.
• “Nobel Prize winner highlights women’s role in Arab Spring”,‘The Michigan Daily’,Published November 15, 2011, retrieved April 4, 2012.
• “Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakul Karman: Islam No Threat to Democracy”,reprinted ‘Positive Islam’, dated December 12, 2011, 1st printed Reuters December 9, 2011, accessed April 4, 2012.
• “The Nobel Prize - Muslim Winners”,by Sadaqat,accessed April 4, 2012.
• “Women Nobel Peace Laureates Congratulate Three New Women Laureates”, Nobel Women's Initiative,dated October 7, 2011, retrieved April 4, 2012.

Karman joins Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2003 for her work to bring equal rights to women in Iran, as the second Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace prize.

“As a Muslim woman, I am well aware of the difficult and severe conditions of your work and struggle,” said Ebadi in her letter today to Karman. Karman receives frequent death threats, and was thrown in jail last January. “I admire your tremendous work and courage. This victory will certainly inspire and reassure the million of Muslim women who suffer from discrimination and who fight for equality of rights between men and women—and also sends a message to countries going through the Arab Spring that true democracy will only be achieved if women also receive equal rights.”

• “Pamuk on Multiculturalism, Secularism, Islam, and the EU ”,‘Turkish Politics in Action’,dated January 18, 2009, retrieved April 5, 2012.
• “Two Souls -- In Europe And Turkey”,an interview with Orhan Pamuk by Nathan Gardels,‘Nobel Laureates Plus’,NPQ,dated November 28, 2006, retrieved April 5, 2012.
• “Nobel author bridges Islam and the West” by Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe,October 13, 2006, retrieved April 5, 2012.
• “Listen to the damned” by Orhan Pamuk, The Guardian,dated September 29, 2001, retrieved April 5, 2012.

“It is not Islam or poverty that succours terrorism, but the failure to be heard”

• “Muhammad Yunus addresses Islamic finance forum ” by Talal Malik,‘Arabian Business’,dated April 13, 2008, retrieved April 5, 2012.
• ‘Anwar Sadat’, about.com,retrieved April 5, 2012.
• “Thirty years later, Sadat's widow still hopes for peace”, CNN,dated March 26, 2009, retrieved April 5, 2012.
• “The Tragedy of Muslim Civilization” by Aftab Zaidi,Nirmukta, November 13, 2011, retrieved April 5, 2012.
• “Naguib Mahfouz and modern ‘Islamic identity’” by ‘Mehnaz Mona Afridi’, UNISA, November 2008, retrieved April 7, 2012.

“How closely have the changes and developments detailed in Mahfouz’s descriptions of ordinary Egyptian lives paralleled what the world has witnessed as ageneral growing “Islamization” of the Muslim world? In my research, I have found that other Muslim writers, such as Leila Ahmed (Egypt), Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan/India), and Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) have also observed and commented on the Islamization of the culture.”