Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (28 July 1971 – 27 October 2019), commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant leader and former teacher who was the founder and first leader of the Islamic State (IS), who proclaimed himself caliph in 2014 and stayed in power until his suicide in an American operation in 2019.
Baghdadi was born in Samarra and obtained graduate degrees in Islamic theology in the late 1990s and 2000s. According to supporters, he obtained a PhD at the Islamic University of Baghdad. Following the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Baghdadi led the "Jama'at Jaysh Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama'ah" insurgent group in Iraq and was detained with al-Qaeda commanders at the American Camp Bucca in 2004. His group joined the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) coalition in 2006 and fought alongside al-Qaeda in Iraq. Upon the dissolution of the MSC in October 2006, Baghdadi became a leading member of the newly established Islamic State of Iraq organization, and rose through the group's ranks until he was appointed its emir, the highest leader, in 2010. In March 2013, the group renamed itself as the "Islamic State of Iraq and Levant" (ISIL), announcing its intention to expand into Syria and forcibly assimilate the Al-Nusra Front, leading to a conflict with al-Qaeda's general command. In June 2014, the group once again re-designated itself as the "Islamic State", and declared itself to be a caliphate. Baghdadi was chosen caliph of the Islamic State by a "Shura Council", which represented those members of the Islamic State allegedly qualified to elect a caliph.The ahl al-hall wal-aqd are qualified individuals empowered to either elect or remove from position a caliph on behalf of an Islamic community – Definition of "ahl al-hall wal-aqd" Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Accessed 15 May 2017.
IS was designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and almost all sovereign states, and Baghdadi was individually considered a terrorist by the United StatesRewards for Justice – Information that brings to justice... Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Up to $25 Million Reward and many other countries. As leader of IS, Baghdadi led the Islamic State's wars against Iraq and Syria. Baghdadi directed the use of tactics including the mass use of suicide bombings and the execution of prisoners of war. IS briefly captured substantial territory in Iraq and Syria, but lost all of that territory and almost all of its fighters during Baghdadi's tenure as caliph. Baghdadi would become directly involved in IS's atrocities and human rights violations. These include the genocide of Yazidis in Iraq, extensive sexual slavery, organized rape, floggings, and systematic executions. He directed terrorist activities and massacres. He embraced brutality as part of the organization's propaganda efforts, producing videos displaying sexual slavery and executions via hacking, stoning and burning. Baghdadi himself kept several personal sex slaves.
On 27 October 2019, Baghdadi killed himself and two children by detonating a suicide vest during the Barisha raid, conducted by the United States following approval from President Donald Trump, in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province. After being offered Islamic funeral rites, his body was buried at sea. IS confirmed his death and named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as his replacement.
Names Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a pseudonym. His (teknonym) was , meaning "father of a young camel". Having at some time taken the name Abu Bakr, al-Baghdadi is thought to have adopted the name of the first caliph, Abu Bakr. During the times when Muhammad might have suffered from illnesses, Abu Bakr was the replacement for leading prayer, according to the Sunni traditionThe Middle East and South Asia 2014. Malcolm Russell (2014) p. 163 of Islam.Philippine News for the Filipino Global Community – encyclopedia Retrieved 1 February 2017 His surname literally means "The one from Baghdad" and denotes that he was from Baghdad city or Baghdad governorate in Iraq.
He had various names and epithets such as ash-Shabah (the phantom or ghost), Invisible Sheikh, Amir al-Mu'minin, Caliph (sometimes followed by Abu Bakr, al-Baghdadi, or Ibrahim), and Sheikh Baghdadi. Other aliases used by al-Badri include Dr. Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai. In 2014, the Telegraph reported that his birthname was Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri. In 2018, Reuters reported that his real name was Ibrahim al-Samarrai.
He was also known as Abu Du'a ( ), The word du'a signifies supplications, invocations, or prayers.Definition New Muslim essentials Accessed 3 May 2017 In regions formerly under IS control, various non-Islamic honorifics that recognize his rank were used as a formal address recognizing him as a noble and a head of state that might precede or follow his name. He was also known as Abdullah al-Nasir,This was name of Ibrahim al-Badri when he was emir of Jamaat Jaysh Ahlus-Sunnah as you can see in their official statements https://www.aymennjawad.org/2019/11/stations-of-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-life-translation Abdul SamiAl-Baghdadi use this name in some of his internal correspondence according to docs leaked by dissendents within IS. https://tamtam.chat/EX_ISIS1/AYR8d1zdEPc and Abu Bakr al-Ansari.
Ancestry and early life Al-Baghdadi was born on 28 July 1971 in Samarra, hence his (onomastic) . He was born to a Sunni Arab family that belonged to the tribe of Al-Bu Badri, giving him another . This tribe includes a number of sub-tribes, including the Radhawiyyah, Husseiniyyah, Adnaniyyah, and Quraysh. Al-Baghdadi later claimed that he was descended from the Quraysh tribe and therefore related to Muhammad, although there was no evidence to back up his claim.
He was the third of the four sons of Awwad Ibrahim, a religious cleric. According to a short semi-authorized biography written by Abu Humam al-Athari, his grandfather, Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, apparently lived until the age of 94 and witnessed the US occupation of Iraq. His father, Awwad, was active in the religious life of the community. Awwad taught the teenaged al-Baghdadi and got his own start as a teacher, leading children in a neighbourhood reciting the Quran. Both his father and grandfather were said to be farmers. His mother, whose name is not known, was described as a religious loving person and was notable in the al-Badri tribe. One of al-Baghdadi's uncles served in Saddam Hussein's security services, and one of his brothers became an officer in the Iraqi Army. He has another brother, who probably died either during the Iran–Iraq War or the Gulf War while serving in the Iraqi military. Al-Baghdadi was described as extremely conservative and religious even in his youth.
Education
Official education records from Samarra High School revealed that al-Baghdadi had to retake his high school certificate in 1991 and scored 481 out of 600 possible points. A few months later, he was deemed unfit for military service by the Iraqi military due to his nearsightedness. His high-school grades were not good enough for him to study his preferred subject (law, educational science and languages) at the University of Baghdad. Instead, it is believed that he attended the Islamic University of Baghdad, now known as Iraqi University, where he studied Islamic law and, later, the Quran.
According to a biography that circulated on extremist Internet forums in July 2013, he obtained a BA, MA, and PhD in Islamic studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad. This article reported the university at which he studied as being in Adhamiya, the location of the Islamic University, but apparently misnamed it the University of Islamic Sciences. Another report says that he earned a doctorate in education from the University of Baghdad.
Will McCants says that he "successfully" defended his Ph.D. thesis in 2007, "despite the weight of his new responsibilities" as a militant, his work consisting in editing a medieval manuscript, Ruḥ al-murid fi sharḥ al-'iqd al-farid fi nuzum at-tajrid by Muhammad al-Samarqandi (who died in 1378 in Baghdad), an Arabic poem on the recitation of the Qur'an (or tajwid), for which he was awarded a grade of "very good".William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State, St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2015, p. 76
Character In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, contemporaries of al-Baghdadi describe him in his youth as being shy, unimpressive, a religious scholar, and a man who eschewed violence. For more than a decade, until 2004, he lived in a room attached to a small local mosque in Tobchi, a poor neighbourhood on the western fringes of Baghdad, inhabited by both Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Ahmed al-Dabash, the leader of the Islamic Army of Iraq and a contemporary of al-Baghdadi who fought against the allied invasion in 2003, gave a description of al-Baghdadi that matched that of the Tobchi residents:
"They [the US and Iraqi Governments] know physically who this guy is, but his backstory is just myth", said Patrick Skinner of the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm. "He's managed this secret persona extremely well, and it's enhanced his group's prestige", said Patrick Johnston of the RAND Corporation, adding, "Young people are really attracted to that." Being mostly unrecognized, even in his own organization, Baghdadi was known to be nicknamed at some time about 2015, as "the invisible sheikh".
Islamic cleric Some believe that al-Baghdadi became an Islamic revolutionary during the rule of Saddam Hussein, but other reports suggest he was radicalized by joining the Muslim Brotherhood as a youth, followed by his later internment with Al Qaeda commanders at the US Camp Bucca. He may have been a mosque cleric around the time of the US-led invasion in 2003. During this period, he was highly influenced by the writings of the Egyptian Jihadist scholar Sayyid Qutb.
After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Baghdadi helped found the militant group Jamaat Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaah (JJASJ), in which he served as head of this group.
US internment
Al-Baghdadi was arrested by US Forces-Iraq on 2 or 4 February 2004 near Fallujah while visiting the home of his old student friend, Nessayif Numan Nessayif, who was also on the American wanted list at the time and studied together with al-Baghdadi at the Islamic University. He was detained at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca detention centers under his name Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badry as a "civilian internee". His detainee card gives his profession as "administrative work (secretary)". The US Department of Defense said al-Baghdadi was imprisoned at Compound 6, which was a medium security Sunni compound. On 8 December 2004, he was released as a prisoner deemed "low level" after being recommended for release by the Combined Review and Release Board.
A number of newspapers and news channels have instead stated that al-Baghdadi was interned from 2005 to 2009. These reports originate from an interview with the former commander of Camp Bucca, Colonel Kenneth King, and are not substantiated by Department of Defense records. Al-Baghdadi was imprisoned at Camp Bucca along with other future leaders of IS.
Leader of Islamic State As leader of the Islamic State of Iraq Al-Baghdadi and his group Jamaat Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaah joined the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) in 2006, in which he served as a member of the MSC's sharia committee. Following the renaming of the MSC as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in 2006, al-Baghdadi became the general supervisor of the ISI's sharia committee and a member of the group's senior consultative council.
Al-Baghdadi was announced as leader of ISI on 16 May 2010, following the death of his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.