wait wait...are you telling me the 14,000 lived before abraham, or people were born and then claimed to be a prophet? wtf, anybody could have done that.
Let me correct myself. Abraham was actually one of the earlier prophets. His lineage includes Moses, Jesus (by Mary's husband) and Muhammad. In between there were many prophets, including his 2 sons Isaac and Ishmael and many you may recognize from the Bible like Lot, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, Job, John, etc.
The Quran teaches that every nation was sent a messenger. They're not all mentioned in the book because that would be a lot of names but their verification was their message. Same message every time.
But I've read articles with supporting evidence that Socrates may have been one of these prophets, the Buddha may have been one of these prophets, as well as your previously mentioned monotheistic pharaoh Akhenaten may have been one of these prophets.
Of course the "who" is all speculation and only God would know them all with certainty. But not "anybody" could have done that because all of these men had immaculate moral character and faced much persecution for their message. This in addition to being charged with the responsibility of being spiritual leaders and in some cases, such as Muhammad, secular leaders as well.