BIN LADEN'S BIOGRAPHY

OSAMA MOHAMMED BIN LADEN was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1998 interview, he gave his birth date as 10 March 1957. His father , the late Mohammed Awad Bin Laden, wasa wealthy businessman with close ties the Saudi royal family.

Though there is not clear account of the number of children Mohammed Bin Laden had but it is generally put at 58. Various accounts place Osama Bin Laden as his seventeenth child.

Osama was the only son of Mohammed Bin Laden and his tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas, nee Alia Ghanem, who was born in Syria.

 

Education

• -          Brummana High School (in mid 1960s). it was said that he attended the school for less than a year. There was no eveidence that Osama received full time education in a religious madrassa.

• -          “elite” Al-Thager Model School         (1968 to 1976)

• -          Degree in Civil Engineering in 1979 from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. During this time, he was involved in Quran interpretaion and Jihad  and ‘Charitable work’.

Bin Laden was reported to have married at least five women. Three of Osama Bin Laden’s wives were university lecturers.

References

• 1.       BIN LADEN’S FATWA

• 2.       “Online news hour”: Al-Qaeda’s 1998 Fatwa.” PBS retrieved 2006-08-21

• 3.       Freeman, John (4 April 2008).