35 - Baybars, Defender of Islam
Among the great Muslim warriors of history, few could match Baybars al-Bunduqari. A slave in the empire of Salah al-Din, born neither Arab nor Muslim, he would defeat the Crusaders, stop the Mongols and establish the new state that would lead the Muslim world for centuries. Seen as the true founder of the Mamluk empire, he helped changed the nature of the Muslim world up to the modern era, for better and worse.