Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri was an Egyptian-born physician and theologian who was the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda from June 2011 until his death on July 31, 2022.
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Zawahiri was born on June 19, 1951 Giza, in the then Kingdom of Egypt, to parents Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri and Umayma Azzam.
Zawahiri was described by The New York Times in 2001 as coming from “a prosperous and prestigious family that gives him a pedigree grounded firmly in both religion and politics”.
Zawahiri’s wealthy family is linked to the Harbi tribe in Zawahir, a small town in Saudi Arabia, located in the Badr.
- Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri
Al-Zawahiri’s father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, came from a large family of doctors and scholars from Kafr Ash Sheikh Dhawahri, Sharqia Governorate, in which one of his grandfathers was Sheikh Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri (1887–1944) who was the 34th Grand Imam of al-Azhar.
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Mohammed Rabie became a surgeon and a professor of pharmacy at Cairo University.
- Umayma Azzam
Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s mother, Umayma Azzam, also came from a wealthy, politically active clan.
She is the daughter of Abdel-Wahhab Azzam, a literary scholar who served as the president of Cairo University, the founder and inaugural rector of the King Saud University (the first university in Saudi Arabia) as well as ambassador to Pakistan, while his own brother was Azzam Pasha, the founding secretary-general of the Arab League (1945–1952).
From his maternal side yet another relative was Salem Azzam, an Islamist intellectual and activist, for a time secretary-general of the Islamic Council of Europe based in London.
He also has a maternal link to the house of Saud: Muna, the daughter of Azzam Pasha (his maternal great-uncle), is married to Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud, the son of the late king Faisal.
Al-Zawahiri was more fond of his mother than his father as he is noted for sayng he has a deep affection for his mother.
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