ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

On the rare occasions when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is seen in public,
his entourage is somewhere between that of a president and a mobster. “The minute he entered, the mobile coverage disappeared,” says a 29-year-old resident of Raqqa in Syria—who asked to be identified only as Abu Ali—recalling the flawless security on one occasion when al-Baghdadi entered a mosque. “Armed guards closed the area. The women were sent upstairs to the women’s section to pray. Everyone was warned not to take photos or videos. It was the most nerve-racking atmosphere.

“What made it [more nerve-racking] is that when Baghdadi finally showed up, wearing black, head to toe, the guards started shouting, ‘Allah akbar! Allah akbar!’ [God is great.] This made us even more scared,” says Ali. “The guards then forced us to swear allegiance to him. Even after Baghdadi left, none of us were allowed to leave the mosque for another 30 minutes.

“He has the working mentality of a Mafioso,” says Ali. “He expects his soldiers to be highly disciplined. He’s a great war planner, he’s very organized.”

In his hometown of Samarra, in the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad, al-Baghdadi, whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri and is sometimes known as Abu Awad or Abu Dua (Dua is the name of his eldest daughter), is remembered rather differently. He was always known “for being so quiet you could hardly hear his voice,” says a former neighbor, Tareeq Hameed. “He was peaceful. He didn’t like to chat a lot.”

Acquaintances of the mastermind behind ISIS, which now controls a self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, say he grew up studious, pious and calm. He was introverted, without many friends.

Hameed remembers him as a boy riding a bike, wearing the usual Iraqi male robe, a dishdasha, with a small white cap on his head. “He always had religious or other books attached on the back of his bike, and I never saw him in trousers and shirt, like most of the other guys in Samarra. He had a light beard, and he never hung out in cafés. He had his small circle from his mosque.”

Reported to have been born in 1971 in Samarra, al-Baghdadi (the name is an affectation; he does not hail from Baghdad) comes from the Al-Jibriya district, a lower-middle-class neighborhood dominated by the Albu Badri and Albu Baz tribes. It was also an area heavily affected by U.S. bombing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, an attempt to root out insurgents and terrorist cells.

Al-Baghdadi’s family was not wealthy, but two of his uncles worked for Saddam Hussein’s security forces. This meant they would have had some status and connections, which would have inspired a certain reverence or fear in the community. “He was from a poor but well-mannered family,” says Hashem, a translator from the area who knew the family. “He was someone very introverted…go the mosque, study, read books, that’s it.”

Al-Baghdadi grew up only a mile away from the 10th century shrine of Imam Hassan al-Askari, one of the holiest sites for Shiite worshippers, but also a place of importance for Sunnis in Samarra. According to the ISIS propaganda machine, faith played a big part in al-Baghdadi’s early life, and another Samarra resident, Yessir Fahmi, says al-Baghdadi’s childhood was mainly spent attending religious courses. “Ibrahim was, like most of his family, a devoted Muslim,” Fahmi says.

But London-based Iraqi analyst Sajad Jiyad from the Iraqi Institute for Economic Reform says he has seen no convincing evidence of such early religious fervor. “I would be surprised if he was a religious person, as most of the Iraqis who became involved in jihadist groups were secular Baathists before 2003,” Jiyad says.

Aside from his religion, locals say, al-Baghdadi liked sports, mainly soccer, which he played in a field near his home. “He would rarely get upset during a match, even if you crashed into him or misbehaved with him,” recalls Hameed. “He was a good defender. It was hard to pass him and score a goal against his team.”

ISIS websites indicate that in these early years, al-Baghdadi studied the Koran at Samarra mosques and took courses in Islamic science and the Hadith—the traditions, deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. One neighbor says al-Baghdadi was supervised by two prominent clerics (now deceased): Sheikh Subhi al-Saarai and Sheikh Adnan al-Ameen.

There are disputes about al-Baghdadi’s early career as a preacher. Some sources say he preached at the Ahmad ibn Hanbal Mosque in Samarra, as well as the Great Mosque in Baghdad, at Friday prayers. But Jiyad and others believe this is just questionable ISIS lore designed to show his superior piety.

More likely is that after high school, as a young man coming of age under Saddam’s rule, al-Baghdadi would have had to do compulsory military service in the Iraqi army. Certainly, he would have learned to use a gun in that time and was schooled in basic military tactics.

Around the age of 18, al-Baghdadi first went to Baghdad to study, settling in the Adhamiya district. The depth of his education is also disputed. Some, such as Hameed, say he acquired a Ph.D. in religious studies. No family members are left to contact to confirm that. “Most of his family members have left Samarra in fear of being associated with him,” says Fahmi. “Ibrahim left in 2003 to study in Baghdad. His young nephew was arrested last year by the Iraqi security forces. When the last of his family went to Baghdad to negotiate his release, they were arrested, too.”