Ahmed was created a life peer, Baron Ahmed, "of Rotherham in the County of South Yorkshire", on 3 August 1998. Although there have been many claims that he was the first Muslim life peer, including by Ahmed himself, or the first male Muslim peer, he was in fact the third Muslim life peer; the other two, Baroness Uddin and Lord Alli, were raised to the Peerage on 18 July whereas Lord Ahmed was so raised on 3 August. There have been earlier Muslim hereditary peers, the first being the 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley in 1869.