10 nobodies who defied the odds and reshaped the world are the focus of this tale. History often forgets the common folk, recording only the deeds of kings and nobles. Yet, every now and then, a forgotten soul bursts onto the scene, topples the elite, and builds an empire that rattles the ages.
10 Nobodies Who Changed History
10 Ya’qub The Coppersmith
Ya’qub al‑Saffar, known as “the Coppersmith,” began life as a poor metalworker in the mid‑ninth‑century city of Zaranj. His brother ‘Amr, a mule driver, lived nearby. At that time, eastern Persia was a cauldron of conflict as the Abbasid caliphs clashed with the radical Kharijites. Amid the chaos, local militias sprang up across the province. Ya’qub and ‘Amr volunteered for one such militia in Zaranj.
Over the ensuing years, Ya’qub seized command of the local forces, drove out bandits, and expanded his authority throughout the region. By 876, his Saffarid Empire stretched across present‑day Iran and Afghanistan. He seemed poised to capture Baghdad and topple the mighty Abbasid Caliphate.
However, fate intervened. The Coppersmith suffered a narrow defeat just fifty miles from Baghdad. Wounded in that battle, he died three years later. His brother ‘Amr succeeded him but could not sustain the empire and was executed in a Baghdad marketplace.
9 Rabih Az‑Zubayr
Rabih Az‑Zubayr entered the world in Sudan sometime in the mid‑nineteenth century. Sold into servitude as a child, he became a slave‑soldier for a local Sudanese ruler. When that prince fell to the Egyptians, Rabih fled into central Africa with roughly four hundred survivors, forming the nucleus of his future empire.
He marched from town to town, forging his rag‑tag band into a disciplined force of five thousand soldiers, complete with an artillery brigade. In the 1890s, he attacked the once‑great Bornu Empire and swiftly overran it, establishing a tightly controlled realm east of Lake Chad.
Rabih’s expansion eventually collided with the ambitions of the French. His outdated rifles and cannons could not match the latest European weaponry. Though he won several victories, including annihilating a French expedition at Togbao, he ultimately fell on the banks of the Logone River in 1900, ending his empire after less than a decade.
8 Nader Shah
The final great Central Asian conqueror, Nader Shah, was born into a low‑status herding family in eastern Persia. Though his beginnings were modest, a monomaniacal thirst for power drove him forward. He appears to have spent a brief stint as a slave before escaping and becoming a bandit. After his armed band helped defeat a local warlord, Nader attracted the attention of Prince Tahmasb, a pretender to the throne.
Prince Tahmasb appointed Nader as his commander, a decision that proved both brilliant and disastrous. Nader quickly distinguished himself as one of history’s greatest generals, amassing victories across the region. Yet his ambition led him to murder Tahmasb and seize the throne, forging an empire that stretched from Georgia to northern India.
In 1739, Nader launched his famed invasion of the Mughal Empire. After crushing the massive Mughal army, he sacked Delhi and captured unimaginable riches, including the famed Koh‑i‑Noor diamond. The spoils were so vast that he could cancel all taxes in Persia for three years. Unfortunately, Nader later displayed signs of mental decline, committing bizarre acts of cruelty. He blinded his oldest son in 1741, then pretended remorse. Alarmed, his own officers assassinated him in 1747, and his empire quickly crumbled.
7 Timur The Lame
Timur the Lame—often called Tamerlane in the West—followed a path similar to Nader’s. Born to a modest family, he began as a petty bandit. Early accounts recount that while stealing sheep, an angry shepherd shot arrows into his leg and arm, leaving him with lasting injuries, a fact later confirmed when archaeologists opened his tomb in 1941.
Timur eventually entered the service of the Chaghatai Khans, rising through their ranks and ultimately usurping the throne. He assembled a massive cavalry that raided and conquered in all directions, creating an army that ruled “from Damascus to Delhi.” He defeated the Golden Horde, razed Baghdad, and even captured the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid the Thunderbolt, briefly crippling Ottoman power.
Timur became infamous for the brutality of his conquests. He erected towers of skulls, enslaved thousands, and razed ancient cities. He succumbed to a bad cold in 1405 while on his way to invade China, leaving his empire to disintegrate after his death.
6 James Brooke
James Brooke, the son of a reasonably wealthy British judge, might have expected a quiet, comfortable life. Yet he never felt at home in nineteenth‑century British society. When his father died, Brooke used his inheritance to purchase an armed schooner and set sail eastward.
In Singapore, he learned that the Sultan of Brunei struggled to control the island of Borneo. Brooke offered assistance on the condition that he be made governor of Sarawak, a vast coastal territory. Though the Sultan was hesitant, he felt pressured by Brooke’s false implication that he acted on behalf of the British government. Reluctantly, the Sultan agreed, and Brooke swiftly asserted his independence as the “White Rajah” of Sarawak.
Brooke solidified his rule by allying with the coastal “Sea Dyaks,” who brutally suppressed inland tribes that resisted. He funded his operation as a pirate hunter, claiming the Royal Navy’s £20 reward for each pirate killed, netting up to £30,000 per expedition. Critics note that many “pirates” were actually local opponents of Brooke. He cultivated a jolly English adventurer persona, yet his regime was founded on bloodshed, including the massacre of 1,500 Chinese in 1857. The Sarawak state outlived him, passing through two more “White Rajahs” before the British purchased it in 1946.
5 The Mahdi Of Sudan
Muhammad Ahmad was born on an island in the Nile near Dongola in northern Sudan. His family were humble boat‑builders, but he pursued a rigorous religious education and earned a reputation for intense devotion and frequent disputes with his teachers. In 1881, he summoned his followers to Aba Island and proclaimed himself the Mahdi, a messianic figure expected to appear before the Day of Judgment in most branches of Islam.
At the time, Sudan was ruled by Egypt, itself effectively a British protectorate. The dual foreign domination sparked heavy resentment, and it seemed miraculous when the Mahdi’s poorly armed followers defeated an Egyptian attempt to arrest him. His movement rapidly grew in strength, culminating in a stunning defeat of the British general “Hicks Pasha” in 1883.
In late 1884, the Mahdists launched the famous siege of Khartoum, defended stoutly by Charles Gordon—better known as “Chinese Gordon”—an eccentric British general likely sharing the Mahdi’s fanatical zeal. The city fell in 1885, leaving Muhammad Ahmad as the undisputed ruler of a religious empire spanning modern Sudan. However, the Mahdi fell ill and died six months later. Deprived of its charismatic leader, his followers could not repel a new Anglo‑Egyptian invasion in 1896.
4 Babak Khorramdin
More than a century and a half after the Muslim conquest of modern Iran, tensions persisted between Arab caliphs and their Persian subjects. Many Persians clung to Zoroastrianism and resented the Arab language and culture’s influence. The brewing unrest found a leader in Babak Khorramdin, a fervent follower of the Zoroastrian prophet Mazdak.
Babak began his career as a guerrilla fighter, launching lightning raids to seize isolated mountain fortresses, including his famously impregnable castle of Ghaleye Babak. As his reputation swelled, Persians flocked to his banner, and by 819 his forces could stand toe‑to‑toe with the Caliph’s armies in pitched battles. Over the next sixteen years, he defeated four Arab armies and earned a reputation as a protector of the poor.
Ultimately, the Abbasid Caliphate’s might proved overwhelming. Babak was driven from his mountain stronghold, captured, and gruesomely executed—his arms and legs were severed, and he was allowed to bleed to death. Shortly before his capture, he famously rejected an offer of amnesty, declaring it “better to live a single day as a ruler than forty years as an abject slave.”
3 Mahapadma Nanda
Greek historian Curtius recounts that the mighty ruler Mahapadma began life as the son of “a barber who earned just enough to eat each day.” Yet he possessed a fine presence that won the queen’s affection. Leveraging this influence, he secured a position of trust, treacherously assassinated the king, and, under the pretext of protecting the royal children, usurped supreme authority.
Indian sources concur, describing Mahapadma as the son of a barber and a prostitute who rose from extreme poverty to become prime minister of a northern Indian kingdom, then overthrew the king and established his own dynasty. He became notorious for slaughtering rival nobles and rejecting aristocratic rules of warfare, earning the Puranas’ epithet “the destroyer of the princely order.” These ruthless tactics proved effective, and by his death in 329 BC, he had expanded his rule to form the most powerful empire India had ever seen.
2 The Slave Dynasty Of Delhi
Qutb al‑Din Aibak founded the “Slave Dynasty” that ruled northern India in the thirteenth century. As the name suggests, he began life as a slave in Nishapur, later sold to Sultan Muhammad of Ghor. As an adult, he was placed in charge of the royal stables and eventually rose to become a military commander, showcasing his talent by conquering Delhi and most of northern India.
After the Sultan was assassinated by unknown assailants, Qutb found himself perfectly positioned to seize power, which he did. Before he could become sultan, he had to secure his freedom, but his heavily armed soldiers made it unlikely his former owner would refuse. The Mamluk (“Slave”) dynasty he founded ruled the Delhi Sultanate until 1290, when a more aristocratic lineage replaced it.
1 Temujin
It’s impossible to imagine a harsher childhood than Temujin’s, the greatest conqueror the world has ever known. At twelve, his father was poisoned by enemies, prompting the tribe to abandon his widowed mother and orphaned children, leaving them destitute. His mother, Hoelun, kept the children alive by gathering food along a riverbank, while young Temujin hunted rats, marmots, and other small game. At fourteen, he killed his half‑brother after an argument over a small fish.
His fortunes worsened when he was captured by the Tayichiuds and forced to work as a slave. A failed escape attempt left him shackled in a cangue, unable to feed himself. He survived only because other slaves aided him, and eventually staged a successful escape by hiding in a river overnight.
Even as a young adult, Temujin led only a modest band, barely scraping a living on the steppe. It was only when his young wife Borte was kidnapped by the Merkids that he organized an expedition to rescue her, setting him on the path to becoming the immortal Genghis Khan.