DUSHANBE, October 3, 2014, Asia-Plus – No representatives of Tajikistan were listed in this year’s edition of The Muslim 500, an annual publication, which ranks the most influential Muslims in the world.

We will recall that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon was listed in The Muslim 500 in 2012.  Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz topped the list in 2012.

Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, was listed in The Muslim 500 in 2013.  In 2013, the top of the list went to Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Sheikh of the Al Azhar University, for the prominent role played by him in Egypt''s troubled democratic transition.

Meanwhile, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan, President Ramzan Kadyrov of Russia’s Chechnya, President Rustam Minnikhanov of Russia’s Tatarstan and Uzbek Grand Mufti Usman Alimov are listed in this year’s edition of The Muslim 500.

The 500 Most Influential Muslims (also known as The Muslim 500) is an annual publication first published in 2009, which ranks the most influential Muslims in the world.

The publication is compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, Jordan.  The report is issued annually in cooperation with Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in the United States.

The publication highlights people who are influential as Muslims. That is people whose influence is derived from their practice of Islam or from the fact that they are Muslim.  Nominations are evaluated on the basis of the influence that particular Muslims have had within the Muslim community and the manner in which their influence has benefited the Muslim community, both within the Islamic world and in terms of representing Islam to non-Muslims.  “Influential” for the purposes of the book is defined as "any person who has the power (be it cultural, ideological, financial, political or otherwise) to make a change that will have a significant impact on the Muslim World.”

The book starts with an overall top 50, ranked the most influential Muslims in the world.  The remaining 450 most prominent Muslims is broken down into 15 categories without ranking, of scholarly, political, administrative, lineage, preachers and spiritual guides, women, youth, philanthropy/charity, development, science and technology, arts and culture, Qu''ran reciters, media, radicals, international Islamic networks and issues of the day.

This year, the top of the list went to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.  He is followed on the listing by Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Sheikh of the Al Azhar University, and Iranian Grand Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei.

Like the previous five years, His Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims and the Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), is among the top 50 most influential Muslims in the world.  This year, he is ranked 39th.