Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was a cousin, son-in-law and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled as the fourth Rashidun caliph from 656 until his assassination in 661. He is considered one of the central figures in Shia Islam, the first Shia Imam and, in Sunni Islam, as the fourth of the "rightly guided" (rāshidūn) caliphs.
Alexander Rogers was educated at Haileybury College before joining the Indian Civil Service at the Bombay (Mumbai) Presidency in 1845. He was elected for the executive branch. He served in the Northern Division becoming Collector and Magistrate in 1860, and Revenue and Police Commissioner in 1865. He became a Member of the Council in Bombay in 1872 before retiring in 1879. His publications include History of the Land Revenue Settlement of Bombay, and translations of three modern Persian plays and of Yusuf and Zuleika. He died on 27 November 1910.
Alexander Hamilton (1762-1824) was one of the first Europeans to study Sanskrit. Hamilton joined the East India Company and arrived in India in 1783. He joined the Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by William Jones. Hamilton returned to Europe around 1797 and went to France after the Treaty of Amiens (1802) to collate Sanskrit manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. When war broke out between Britain and France in 1803 Hamilton was interned as an enemy alien, but was released to carry on his researches at the insistence of the French scholar Constantine Volney. Hamilton taught Sanskrit to Volney and others, including Friedrich Schlegel and Jean-Louis Burnouf, the father of Eugene Burnouf. Hamilton spent most of his time compiling a catalogue of Indian manuscripts in the library which was published in 1807. Hamilton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1808 and became professor of Sanscrit and Hindoo literature at Haileybury College. He died at Liscard on 30 December 1824.