100 Notable alumni of Damascus University

Kazem Ismail al-Khalil – commonly known as Kazem al-Khalil or Kazem el-Khalil, also transliterated Kazim from the Arabic (كاظم إسماعيل الخليل) – was a lawyer, doyen member of the Lebanese parliament, seven-time minister of the Lebanese government and right-wing militia-leader from a Shiite feudal dynasty in Southern Lebanon.

Ibrahim Hamidi is a London-based Syrian journalist who is a senior diplomatic editor for the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, and who contributes to severalinternational media outlets and think tanks. Previously, he served as head of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) office in Damascus, and of the Damascus bureau of Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat, and as a senior writer for Forward...

Diana El Jeiroudi, (Arabic: ديانا الجيرودي; born 1977) is a Berlin-based, Syrian independent film director and producer. El Jeiroudi’s films as director were celebrated at many festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, IDFA, DokLeipzig, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX... among others. Her producing credits include the Sundance 2023 film 5 Seasons of Revolution, the Cannes Film Festival 2014 selection Silvered Water,...

Noura Ghazi, or Noura Ghazi Safadi (نورة غازي صفدي) (born September 30, 1981) is a Syrian human rights lawyer and activist. Her husband, the Syrian-Palestinian Bassel Khartabil (Arabic: باسل خرطبيل), or Bassel Safadi (Arabic: باسل صفدي) was an open-source software developer and one of Syria's leading pro-free speech and democracy activists. He was arrested by the Syrian government in 2012...

Liwaa Yazji, alternative spelling Liwaa Yazaji, is a Syrian filmmaker, playwright, TV screenwriter, dramaturge and poet. Her works, written in Arabic, have been translated into English and presented in the United Kingdom, the US and, in original Arabic versions, in Arab states.

Zaina Erhaim is a Syrian journalist, and feminist. She works as a communications consultant and trainer with international organisations in Syria, Iraq, Morocco, Libya, Lebanon and Egypt. She has reported on the Syrian civil war from within Syria. Erhaim was the Institute for War and Peace Reporting 's Communications Manager, she trained hundreds of people whilst in Syria to be...

Ali Khalifa Al-Kuwari is a Qatari democracy activist, author and professor. He has occupied several positions in the oil sector. He is known for editing the book The People Want Reform in Qatar Too, which was subsequently banned in Qatar due to its critical views of government policies. He is one of the primary advocates for political reform in the...

Sari Hanafi is professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut and chair of the Islamic Studies program. He is the former president of the International Sociological Association and editor of Idafat, a sociology journal. In 2018, Hanafi founded "Athar", a research portal.

Ibrahim Makhūs or Ibrahim Makhous or Brahim Makhous and Arabic: إبراهيم ماخوس was a Syrian Baathist politician who sat on the Regional Command from 1966 to 1970. He served as foreign minister during Salah Jadid's rule.

Majd Izzat al-Chourbaji is a Syrian peace activist. In 2015, she was awarded the U.S. State Department's International Women of Courage Award, for her work with women and human rights advocacy in Syria.

Ghassan Ibrahim is the Editor in Chief of Global Arab Network and a Syrian journalist.

Amani Ballour is a Syrian-born pediatrician and an advocate of women's and children's rights. Her story is portrayed by the Oscar-nominated documentary The Cave, which tells of the struggles of running an underground hospital during the Syrian civil war.

Orwa Nyrabia is an independent documentary film festival artistic director, producer, filmmaker, trainer, human rights defender and, together with his partner, filmmaker Diana El Jeiroudi, co-founder of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria. Nyrabia is a resident of Berlin, Germany, since the end of 2013 In 2018, Nyrabia became the artistic director of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam...

Mariem Mint Mohamed Fadel Ould Dah, also known as Mariem Mint Dah (Hassaniyya: مريم منت الداه), is a Mauritanian dentist, commander in the Armed Forces of Mauritania and activist who has been the First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania since 2019 as the wife of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.

Salwa Al Neimi, also Salwa al-Nuʿaymī is a Syrian writer, poet and journalist living in France. Originally from Damascus, she is known for her outspoken views on topics which are taboo in the Muslim world, particularly female sexuality. In 2007 she published her debut novel, The Proof of the Honey, which was noted for its liberal treatment of female sexuality....

Saad Mohammad Jumaa Alayoubi was a Jordanian politician, writer and poet who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Jordan in 1967.

Mano Khalil is a Kurdish-Swiss film director living in Switzerland.

Ziad Abu Amr is a Palestinian politician, author, and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Palestine and is a member (independent) of the PLO Executive Committee. From 17 March 2007 to 14 June 2007, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. On 6 June 2013, Ziad Abu Amr was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister...

Omran Ahed al-Zoubi was the Minister of Information in the Government of Syria from 23 June 2012 until July 2016. He died from a heart attack on 6 July 2018.

Sami al-Jundi was a Syrian Ba'athist politician, and a follower of Michel Aflaq.

Abdellatif Abdelhamid was a Syrian film director. His films have earned numerous awards, beginning with the Damascus International Film Festival, the Carthage Film Festival, and Rabat International Film Festival.

Said Al-Ghazzi was a Syrian lawyer, politician and two-time prime minister of Syria. He was born in Damascus.

Ziyad Mukhamedovich Sabsabi, is a Syrian-Russian politician who served as a Member of the Federation Council from the legislative authority of the Chechen Republic from 2008 to 2019.

Mazen Darwish is a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate. He is the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. News organizations, including Reuters and the Associated Press, have described him as one of Syria's most prominent activists. He was imprisoned in Syria from 2012 until his release in August 2015.

Naser al-Hariri is a former member of the People's Council of Syria from Daraa. Along with fellow parliamentarian Khalil al-Rifaei, also from Daraa, al-Hariri resigned from his seat in protest at the "continued killings of protesters during the 2011 protests in Syria".

Bashir al-Azma, was a Syrian doctor and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Syria from 16 April to 14 September 1962.

Jamal Al-Atassi was a Syrian Arab nationalist, politician and author. He was one of the earliest ideologues of the nascent Syrian Ba'ath Party, which he joined soon after it was founded. He helped to lay out its constitution and was the man who came up with the party's motto, "One united Arab Nation with an eternal Message." He also served...

Sabri al-Asali was a Syrian politician and a three-time prime minister of Syria. He also served as vice-president of the United Arab Republic in 1958.

Bahjat Talhouni was a Jordanian political figure. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Jordan between 1960 and 1970 for six different terms.

Abdul Salam al-Ujayli was a Syrian novelist, doctor and politician.

Fatima Jibrell is a Somali-American environmental activist. She was the co-founder and executive director of the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization (now Adeso), co-founder of Sun Fire Cooking, and was instrumental in the creation of the Women's Coalition for Peace.

Maram al-Masri is a Syrian writer, living in Paris. She has been considered "one of the most renowned and captivating feminine voices of her generation" in Arabic.

Mahmoud Shukair is a Palestinian writer. He was born in Jabal al-Mukabbar in Jerusalem during the British Mandate and studied philosophy and sociology at Damascus University in Syria. He was jailed by the Israeli authorities, and was deported to Lebanon in 1975. After living for 18 years in Beirut, Amman and Prague, he returned to Jerusalem in 1993. He worked...

Jawad Abu Hatab is a Syrian politician. Prior to his election as prime minister, he worked as a heart surgeon and served in various roles within the Syrian opposition.

Bassam al-Sabbagh is a Syrian diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign and Expatriates Minister of Syria from 22 September 2024 to 8 December 2024. He is the last person to serve in this position under president Bashar al-Assad and of the Syrian Arab Republic. He also served as Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations in New...

Sabah Qabbani was appointed ambassador of Syria to the United States by President Hafez al-Assad in 1974. The post had been vacant since 1967 when diplomatic relations between Syria and the United States were severed following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Prior to his posting in Washington, D.C. he was Syria's envoy to Indonesia and Syria's consul in New York.

Abdullah Al-Ahmar is a Syrian politician and prominent member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.

Suheir al-Atassi is a Syrian secular activist in the Syrian opposition, and co-vice-president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces between November 2012 and December 2013. She has been called the "Lady of the Revolution" and is widely respected in secular and intellectual circles within the Syrian opposition structure. She had previously run the media wing of...

Hassan al-Nouri is a Syrian politician who was a candidate for the Syrian presidential election in June 2014.

Charles Giles Clarke CBE DL, is a British businessman then cricket administrator, who was chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Ali Farzat or Ali Ferzat is a Syrian political cartoonist. He has published more than 15,000 caricatures in Syrian, Arab and international newspapers. He serves as the head of the Arab Cartoonists Association. In 2011, he received Sakharov Prize for peace. Farzat was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2012.

Moussa al-Omar is a Syrian journalist and presenter.

Mudar Mohammad Ayesh Badran was a Jordanian politician, government minister, and industrialist. He served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Jordan on three occasions from 1976 to 1979, then again from 1980 to 1984, and finally from 1989 to 1991.

Yusuf Zuayyin was a Syrian politician. A member of the Ba'ath Party, he served as Prime Minister of Syria in 1965 and again from 1966 to 1968. He was born in Abu Kamal.

Abdelsalam Atalla al-Majali was a Jordanian physician and politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Jordan.

Akram Al-Hourani, was a Syrian politician who played a prominent role during the democratic era of Syria in the 1950s, he established and led the Arab Socialist Party. He was a highly influential figure in the Syrian politics from the beginning of the 1940s until his departure into exile in 1963, during this period he was able to introduce significant...

George Sabra is a Syrian politician and member of the Syrian Democratic People's Party. He was elected president of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in Syria, on 9 November 2012 and later was acting president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces from 22 April – 6 July 2013. He resigned from the National...

Faisal Mekdad is a Syrian diplomat and politician who served as the last vice president of Ba'athist Syria from September until 8 December 2024. He previously served as Foreign Minister of Syria from 2020 to 2024 and as Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2003 to 2006.

Muhammed Ghassan Aboud is a Syrian entrepreneur. He is one of the founding members of the Syrian Business Council and the Ghassan Aboud Group. Based in the United Arab Emirates, Aboud was listed in the 2018 issue of the Top 50 Most Influential Expats in the UAE by Forbes Middle East. In 2019, his net worth was estimated at $1.75...

Khalid al-Azm was a Syrian politician and five-time interim Prime Minister, as well as Acting President from 4 April to 16 September 1941. He was a member of one of the most prominent political families in Syria, al-Azm (also known as Alazem or Al Azem), and the son of an Ottoman minister of religious affairs.

Hazza' Barakat al-Majali was a Jordanian politician who served as the two-time 11th Prime Minister of Jordan. His first term lasted one week in 1955, his second term lasted from mid-1959 until his assassination.

Ahmad Moaz Al-Khatib Al-Hasani is a former president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. He is also a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Lena Chamamyan is a Syrian singer-songwriter, known for her soprano voice and unique style, which fuses jazz, Arabic folk music and Western classical music.

Majid al-Shibl, original name Muhammad al-Shibil, was a prominent Saudi announcer who introduced several programs and variety.

Wael Nader al-Halqi is a Syrian politician who was Prime Minister of Syria from 2012 to 2016. Previously he was Minister of Health from 2011 to 2012. He was appointed as Prime Minister on 9 August 2012.

Rafik Schami is a Syrian-German author, storyteller and critic.

Sa'dun Hammadi was an Iraqi politician, writer and economist who held various positions in the Iraqi state, most notably as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1974 to 1983, and later as the longest serving Speaker of the National Assembly under President Saddam Hussein from 1996 until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Riyad Farid Hijab is a Syrian politician and engineer who served as Prime Minister of Syria from June to August 2012 under President Bashar al-Assad. He previously served as Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform from 2011 to 2012.

Imad Muhammad Dib Khamis is a Syrian politician who served as the prime minister of Syria from 2016 to 2020 under president Bashar al-Assad. Previously, he was minister of electricity from 2011 to 2016.

Bashar Jaafari, also Ja'afari, is a Syrian diplomat who served as the Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations (PermRep) from 2006 to 2020. As PermRep, Jaafari was the Assad regime's lead negotiator during the Syrian peace process with the Syrian opposition.

May Skaf was a Syrian actress and activist. She began her career in 1991. Skaf acted in many series and movies such as Al-Ababeed in 1997, Maraya in 1998 and Omar in 2012. Skaf was known for her opposition to Syrian regime, she was labeled The rebellious artist, The Free artist and Revolution icon. She died in July 2018 in...

Faisal Al-Qasim, also written as Faisal Al-Kasim is a British-Syrian television personality based in Qatar, who is known for hosting the controversial live debate show The Opposite Direction (Arabic: الاتجاه المعاكس) on Al Jazeera, where two guests with contradicting points of views debate on various topics but mostly topics related to politics of the Arab world. Fights break out on...

Farouk al-Sharaa is a Syrian politician and diplomat. He was one of the most prominent officials in the government of Ba'athist Syria and served as foreign minister from 1984 to 2006, then as vice president until 2014.

George Dominic Percy, Earl Percy, is a British businessman and the heir apparent to the Dukedom of Northumberland.

Suzan Najm Aldeen is a Syrian actress, whose memorable roles have earned her wide acclaim throughout the Arab world. After enrolling in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture Department in Damascus, she was offered the opportunity to become an actress. This, however, did not stop her from pursuing her studies and graduating as an architect. Starting in 1990s Syrian dramas, Najm...

Assef Shawkat was a Syrian military officer and intelligence chief who was the Deputy Minister of Defense of Syria from September 2011 until his death in July 2012. He was the brother-in-law of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, having married his older sister Bushra.

Nureddin Mustafa Ali al-Atassi was a Syrian politician who served as the president of Syria from 1966 to 1970. Atassi was the first Syrian president to address the United Nations General Assembly, a record that stood until President Ahmed al-Sharaa addressed it in September 2025.

Jumana Murad is a Syrian actress and producer.

Wael Sharaf is a Syrian actor and film director. He is known for playing Moataz in the historical drama Bab al-Hara seasons 1-7, which is shown during Ramadan.

Rifaat Ali Suleiman al-Assad was a Syrian military officer and politician. He was the younger brother of Hafez al-Assad and the uncle of Bashar al-Assad, who served successively as President of Syria. He is most famous for being the commanding officer of the ground operations of the 1982 Hama massacre.

Sulaf Fawakherji is a Syrian film, TV actress and director.

Abdul Halim Khaddam was a Syrian politician who served as interim President of Syria in 2000 as well as the Vice President of Syria and the Syrian High Commissioner to Lebanon from 1984 to 2005. He was a long known loyalist of Hafez al-Assad under the Ba'athist regime in Syria after the Corrective Movement in 1970. He resigned from his...

Sabah Jazairi is a veteran Syrian actress who has appeared in numerous drama and television series, comedy shorts, and theatrical plays, including "Al Ababid", "Aa'id ila Haifa" (Returning to Haifa) and Bab Al-Hara (The Alley's Gate). Nicknamed "The Cinderella of the Syrian Screen", Jazairi's long career has spanned over five decades and she has performed in over 80 television series....

Yasser al-Azmeh is a prominent Syrian writer and actor of television and theater from Damascus. He is a member of the highly notable Al-Azmeh Damascene family. Al-Azmeh is best known for the popular comedy series Maraya which was filmed from 1982–2013 for a total of 20 seasons.

Dima Kandalaft is a Syrian actress and singer.

Bassel al-Assad was a Syrian military officer, engineer and politician. He was the eldest son of Syrian president Hafez al-Assad. He was expected to succeed his father as president until his death in a car crash in January 1994. After his death, his younger brother Bashar became heir apparent to the Syrian presidency and ultimately succeeded their father upon his...

Major General Maher Hafez al-Assad is a Syrian former military officer who served as commander of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, which, together with Syria's Military Intelligence, formed the core of the Assad regime's security forces until its collapse in 2024. He is the younger brother of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and also was a member of...

Bushra al-Assad is the first child and only daughter of Hafez al-Assad, who was the president of Syria from 1971 to 2000. She is the sister of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She is the widow of Assef Shawkat, the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian Armed Forces and former head of the Syrian Military Intelligence, who was killed...

Kosai Khauli is a Syrian actor. He portrayed the king of Egypt Ismai’il Pasha in the 2014 historic TV drama Saraya Abdeen that aired on MBC in 2014.

Mohammed Rateb Al-Nabulsi is a Syrian writer, professor, Islamic scholar, and Co-founder & manager (Nabulsi Encyclopedia of Islamic Science). He was a professor at Damascus University. He was living in Syria but after the Syrian Revolution started in 2011, he went to Jordan. After the fall of the Assad regime he returned to Syria in 2024.

Bashar Hafez al-Assad is a Syrian former politician, doctor, and military officer who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until his overthrow in 2024 after the Syrian civil war. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez...

Muhammad Zuhair Masharqa was a Syrian politician who served as Vice President of Syria from 1984 to 2006.

Omar Abu Risha was a Syrian poet and diplomat. He served as the Syrian ambassador to the United States from 1961 to 1964 and was a renowned poet who lyricized Fī Sabīli al-Majd (In Pursuit of Glory), Syria's de facto national anthem.

Ali Ahmad Said Esber, also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis (أدونيس [ʔadoːˈniːs]), is a Syrian poet, essayist and translator. Maya Jaggi, writing for The Guardian stated "He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the 20th century, "exerting a seismic influence" on Arabic poetry comparable to T.S. Eliot's in the anglophone world."

Razan Ghazzawi is a Syrian-Palestinian blogger, campaigner, teacher, and activist, originally from Homs in Syria and Gaza in Palestine. Ghazzawi finished their PhD in Gender Studies and International Relations at the University of Sussex. They currently work as a tenure-track assistant professor in Queer Studies at Oregon State University, USA, since September 2023. Ghazzawi has been highly involved as a...

Riyad Naasan Agha was a Syrian politician. He served as minister of culture of Syria from 21 February 2006 to 3 October 2010, and also as the country's Ambassador to Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Agha held a PhD. degree in philosophy from the University of Damascus.

Hassan Hassan is an American author and journalist of Syrian origin. He co-wrote the 2015 New York Times bestseller ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror with Michael Weiss. He has written on Islamist groups in the Middle East. He frequently appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, Amanpour and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, and has written for The New York...

Bouthaina Shaaban is a Syrian politician who served as political and media adviser to the presidency under Bashar al-Assad until his overthrow in 2024. Shaaban had also previously served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2002 and 2008, and was described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world at the time.

Imad Moustapha is a former Syrian Ambassador to China and the United States.

Edmund “Ed” Husain (born 25 December 1974) is a published British American author, co-founder of the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam Foundation, Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). As a political advisor he has worked with leaders and governments...

Mohammad Riad Hussain Ismat was a Syrian writer, critic and theatre director. He served as Minister of Culture of Syria from 3 October 2010 to 23 June 2012.

Nazim al-Qudsi, was a Syrian politician who served as the president of Syria from 14 December 1961 to 8 March 1963.

Muhammad Abul Huda al-Yaqoubi is a Syrian Islamic scholar. A descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, al-Yaqoubi is a follower of the Maliki and Hanafi schools of thought.

Mahmoud Abbas, also known by the kunya Abu Mazen (Arabic: أَبُو مَازِن, ʾAbū Māzin), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) since 2005. He has also been the fourth chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 2004. Abbas is also a member of the Fatah party...

Michael Andreas Lüders is a German political scientist and Islamic scholar who works as a publicist and political and economic consultant. He is also known as a journalist and a writer of many novels.

Burhan Ghalioun is a French-Syrian professor of sociology at the Université de Paris III Sorbonne University in Paris, and the first chairman of the Syrian National Council (SNC). He was named chairman on 29 August 2011. His chairmanship was criticized for his perceived closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood, his early reluctance to arm opposition forces, and what opponents called the...

Mohammad Al-Habash or Mohamed Habash is a Syrian Islamic scholar, and writer. He is the principal figure of the Islamic revivalist movement in Syria, and the founder of the Studies Center for Civilization and Enlightenment Research.

Rached Ghannouchi, also spelled Rachid al-Ghannouchi or Rached el-Ghannouchi, is a Tunisian politician, the co-founder of the Ennahdha Party and serving as its intellectual leader. He was born Rashad Khriji (راشد الخريجي).

Muhammad Said Ramadan Al-Bouti was a renowned Syrian Sunni Muslim scholar and author. He was served as professor and vice dean at the Damascus University, also serving as the imam of the Umayyad Mosque.