List of people from Lahore

The old and historical city of Lahore, now in Punjab (Pakistan), has been home to many famous personalities in Indian history, and later Pakistani history after 1947. A list of famous 'Lahoris', or people who lived in Lahore and added positively to its social, cultural and intellectual life, is given below. This is not complete and you may add to it.

This list is given in chronological order.

Notable Lahoris

• Lav, son of Rama, the legendary founder of Lahore.
• Hazrat Ali al-Hajvery, patron Sufi saint of the city.
• Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aibak, a ruler of the Delhi Sultanate who did much to embellish the city.
• Akbar the Great, Mughal Emperor
• Jahangir, Mughal Emperor
• Anarkali, famed dancing-girl of Mughal times.
• Nur Jahan, Mughal Empress and early social hostess
• Mian Mir Sahib, another very popular Sufi saint of the city.
• Madho Lal Hussain, 16th century Punjabi Sufi poet.
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sikh ruler of Punjab
• The Fakir Family of the old walled Lahore, owners of the Fakir Khana
• The Mian Family of Baghbanpura which produced many famous people
• Sir Henry Lawrence, early British Indian administrator
• Sir John Lawrence (later Lord Lawrence) first Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab
• Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison, Lieutenant-Governor
• John Lockwood Kipling, artist and art curator
• Prof. Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, educationalist
• Sir Ganga Ram, engineer and philanthropist
• Rudyard Kipling, author
• Hakim Ahmad Shuja, scholar, poet, writer and lyricist
• Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj playwright who immortalised the love story of Anarkali.
• Allama Muhammad Iqbal, national poet of Pakistan
• Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Premier of the Punjab and renovator of the Badshahi Mosque
• Sir Shahnawaz Khan Mamdot Punjabi landowner and Muslim League supporter
• Amrita Sher-Gil, artist and tragic muse
• Malik Barkat Ali lawyer, journalist and political figure
• Ustad Allah Bux artist
• A.R. Chughtai, artist
• Shakir Ali artist and art teacher
• Anwar Kamal Pasha famous early film director and producer.
• Faiz Ahmad Faiz poet and progressive, socialist journalist
• Dr Mohammad Abdus Salam, Nobel Prize winning physicist
• Anna Molka Ahmed artist, poet and art teacher at the University of the Punjab
• Madam Noor Jehan singer and early movie-star
• Sadequain, artist
• Riaz Shahid, film-maker and writer
• Neelo, popular film actress.
• Taufiq Rafat, poet and Punjabi translator
• Asma Jahangir, eminent lawyer and human rights activist.
• Yawar Hayat Khan early Pakistan Television director-producer.
• Altaf Hussain Pakistani film director.
• Bapsi Sidhwa (née Bhandara) novelist and native of Lahore.
• Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Lahori politician and industrialist
• Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of the Punjab and bon vivant
• Reema, famous film actress, producer and director.
• Imran Khan ex-sportsman and political reformer
• Mohsin Hamid, novelist and socialite
• Hammad Khan, humanitarian and Past District Interact Representative at Rotary International District 3272 2013-14

Further reading

• Griffin and Massey, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab, revided edition 1910-11.
• WG Osborne, The Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh, London, 1846.
• Lady Emily Eden, Up the Country, new edition, London, 1983.
• Hakim Ahmad Shuja, Lahore ka Chelsea (Urdu), Lahore, 1969.
• Ian Talbot, Divided Cities: Lahore and Amritsar:1947-1957, Karachi, 2005 edition.
• FS Aijazuddin, Lahore: Illustrated Views of the 19th Century, Lahore, n.d.
• WJ Glover, Making Lahore Modern: Constructing and Imagining a Colonial City, Karachi, 2011.
• B. Gascoine, The Great Mughals, London, 1971.
• M. Athar Tahir, Punjab Portraits, Lahore, 1992.
• Isobel Shaw, Pakistan Handbook 1988.