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Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist: The Life and Legacy of Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
For over half a century, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri repeatedly emerged from the shadows as a vengeful ideologue hell-bent on changing history. Dr. Sajjan M. Gohel provides the first definitive account of one of the world's most wanted terrorists. Having grown up in an illustrious Egyptian family of physicians, lawyers, clergy, and politicians, al-Zawahiri was originally destined to become a successful doctor. However, he chose to rebel against his own society which he deemed to have deviated from its religious identity. By forming his own terrorist group, al-Zawahiri dedicated his life to sedition and violent rebellion against the international order.
Ayman al-Zawahiri led a life incomparable to anyone else. The Egyptian found himself in many of the places where history was being determined. His journey takes us across Egypt, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the United States and Russia. Through his close bond with Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri played a critical role in the evolution of al-Qaeda's ideology, recruitment, tactics, and strategy. With the deft touch of a teacher, al-Zawahiri delegated numerous murderous assignments globally. He engaged in the assassination of political leaders, sought to develop chemical and biological weapons, recruited double and triple agents, turned the tables on his enemies, and pioneered the use of new media technology to convey al-Qaeda's zealotry.
In 2011, al-Zawahiri succeeded bin Laden, to become the head of al-Qaeda and sought to rebuild and reform his organisation whilst being aided by murky ties in Pakistan and Iran and his Taliban allies. Against the background of the Arab Spring and the West's departure from Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri left a deadly legacy for al-Qaeda's future for years to come.
Ayman al-Zawahiri led a life incomparable to anyone else. The Egyptian found himself in many of the places where history was being determined. His journey takes us across Egypt, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the United States and Russia. Through his close bond with Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri played a critical role in the evolution of al-Qaeda's ideology, recruitment, tactics, and strategy. With the deft touch of a teacher, al-Zawahiri delegated numerous murderous assignments globally. He engaged in the assassination of political leaders, sought to develop chemical and biological weapons, recruited double and triple agents, turned the tables on his enemies, and pioneered the use of new media technology to convey al-Qaeda's zealotry.
In 2011, al-Zawahiri succeeded bin Laden, to become the head of al-Qaeda and sought to rebuild and reform his organisation whilst being aided by murky ties in Pakistan and Iran and his Taliban allies. Against the background of the Arab Spring and the West's departure from Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri left a deadly legacy for al-Qaeda's future for years to come.
544 pages, Hardcover
Published December 12, 2023
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January 31, 2026
Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist by Sajjan Gohel is one of only two biographies in English about the Egyptian Doctor and Second-in-Command (till Osama bin Laden's killing), Ayman al-Zawahiri, of the terror outfit, Al-Qaeda. Montasser al-Zayyat's 'Road to Al-Qaeda' was the first, but only covered the period till 2004, and missed out on important developments post 9/11. Ironically, al-Zawahiri criticised al-Zayyat as a stooge of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian leader who was deposed in the wake of the Arab Spring tidings. Gohel, on the other hand takes the biography to al-Zawahiri's assassination by the US on the 31st of July 2022, when a couple of Hellfire RX9 missiles operated by a drone operator in the US smashed through the balcony in Sherpur, Kabul and blew him to pieces, bringing to end a critical role in the evolution of al-Qaeda's ideology, recruitment, tactics, and strategy. With the deft touch of a teacher, al-Zawahiri delegated numerous murderous assignments globally. He engaged in the assassination of political leaders, sought to develop chemical and biological weapons, recruited double and triple agents, turned the tables on his enemies, and pioneered the use of new media technology to convey al-Qaeda's zealotry. Al-Zawahiri's killing occurred a year after the US took a hasty retreat from Afghanistan after signing a deal with the Taliban in Doha thus ending US' longest occupation in history and giving back the reigns to the Taliban who they had gone in to oust permanently in 2001 post 9/11. With the Taliban back at the helm of affairs in Afghanistan, the Haqqanis, the dreaded Pakistani/Afghan Sunni Islamist militant organization that was originally formed in the 1970s as an insurgent group and has grown increasingly powerful within the ranks of the new Afghan government under Taliban rule and feared for being extremely violent, decided under the Minister of Refugees, Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, himself a designated terrorist to bring al-Zawahiri to Kabul from Pakistan and lodge him in the newer uptown in Sherpur. Khalil had an enduring relationship with the Zawahiris and felt obliged to host the Egyptians under the protection of the new Taliban.
Some Misses
Though, Gohel's book is a dense and thoroughly researched work on al-Zawahiri, it has some serious misses. Firstly, there is no mention of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a prominent Afghan warlord and leader of Hezb-e-Islami, who maintained an uneasy, often parallel, alliance with Al-Qaeda, in the post-9/11 fight against US forces in Afghanistan. While Hekmatyar operated somewhat independently from the Taliban, he supported al-Qaeda’s ideology, with many scholars of international terrorist studies suggesting how his men helped Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden evade US forces in 2002.
Secondly, Boko Haram, the notoriously violent Nigerian group finds a fleeting mention, and that too with the Africans pledging allegiance to ISIS, which though factual, lays no stress on the relations with the al-Qaeda or even AQIM (AQ of the Islamic Maghreb). Muhammed Ali, who founded Boko Haram, met Osama bin Laden and other jihadists in Sudan in the 1990s and trained in Afghanistan. (Muhammed Yusuf, who was Ali’s co-leader, was primarily “in charge of” managing relations between Boko Haram, Salafi clerics, and the local government where the group’s training camp was based but became the sole group leader only after Ali’s death in late 2003). In 2003, al-Qaeda’s external operations unit sent a Nigerien al-Qaeda member who pledged baya’a to bin Laden from Pakistan to Nigeria to meet with Muhammed Ali’s deputy leader and plan an attack on United States interests in Nigeria and trainings of Boko Haram with AQIM’s predecessor, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). They had advanced to the stage of storing weapons and scouting targets in Abuja before a Boko Haram courier was arrested in Pakistan and the plot was aborted. The motivation for attacking the United States in Nigeria was to prevent Nigeria from becoming a base for power projection in West Africa on behalf of the “Jews and Crusaders.” Boko Haram/Ansaru member Adam Kambar was with Muhammed Ali at Boko Haram’s training camp in 2002 and later trained with AQIM in 2007 and had a “direct line of communication” to Ayman al-Zawahiri before his death in Nigeria in 2012. The United States designated Kambar (along with Khalid al-Barnawi and Shekau) a terrorist in 2012.
Thirdly, relations between al-Zawahiri and Hamas have been barely explored, for it is well known that the former held a complex, often critical, relationship with Hamas. While occasionally offering qualified support for their fight against Israel, he severely criticized them for participating in democratic elections (2006) and pursuing a nationalist agenda rather than a global jihadist agenda. Hamas, meanwhile, maintained a distinct identity focused on local resistance, often distancing itself from al-Qaeda's ideology. While al-Qaeda affiliates have recently tried to co-opt the conflict following the October 7, 2023, attacks, the historic relationship between the two has been defined more by ideological distance and criticism than by direct partnership.
Fourthly, the Hezbollah angle could have had more space than the obtuse treatment. Yes, both the Al-Qaeda and the Hezbollah belong to the opposite sides on the sectarian divide, they have had collaborations in the past. As former National Security Council members Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon describe in their book, "The Age of Sacred Terror", a small group of al-Qaeda members visited Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon in the mid-1990s. Shortly thereafter, according to testimony from Ali Mohammed, an Egyptian-born US Army sergeant who later served as one of bin Laden’s lieutenants and pled guilty to participating in the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa, Osama bin Laden and Imad Mugniyeh met in Sudan. The two men, who have both topped the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists, agreed Hezbollah would provide the fledgling al-Qaeda organization with explosives and training in exchange for money and manpower. Though it is unclear whether all terms of that agreement were met or the degree to which the two groups have worked together since. Douglas Farah, a journalist and consultant with the NEFA Foundation, a New York-based counterterrorism organization, says Hezbollah helped al-Qaeda traffic its assets through Africa in the form of diamonds and gold shortly after the 9/11 attacks. US and European intelligence reports from that time suggest the two groups were collaborating in such activities as money laundering, gun running, and training. It’s not clear whether these past collaborations were isolated incidents or indications of a broader relationship. Though, IRGC's Shadow Commander, Soleimani's inclusion in the narrative tries to apply the band-aid, but hardly covers the wounds of this cardinal miss.
Fifthly, the Central Asian IMU, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan finds no mention. The IMU has attempted to destabilize the former Soviet Republic and has shifted base to Afghanistan now, some of its members pledged allegiance to ISIS-K. Now, largely on the periphery, the IMU was ideologically under the umbrella of al-Zawahiri, and continues to pose a threat to the Oxus Valley as well as the Xinjiang province in China.
Lastly, the Oxford University Press Edition is littered with typographical errors, oftentimes frustrating to read. A book so well researched otherwise should have been thoroughly copy-edited, which, in the absence, takes a toll on flow and continuity.
Merits
Ayman al-Zawahiri has left a legacy in international jihadist movements that outscored bin Laden's or Baghdadi's or even the killing machine in the form of Zarqawi's has finally got the treatment he deserves in Sajjan Gohel. Starring from the Egyptian Nationalist Cause, the seeds of which were sown by Napoleon Bonaparte's take over of Egypt to the British Colonial period by way of the decline of the Ottomans after WW1 and the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) to post WW2 and the signing of the Camp David Accords, the Egyptian cause of an Islamic State was mushrooming in the philosophical and ideological writings of Sayyid Qutb during the rules of Gamal Naseer and Anwar Sadat. Born in an eminent family of doctors, lawyers and religious personalities, al-Zawahiri's formative years in Cairo were shaped by Naseer's nationalism and the leader's execution of the ideologue, Qutb, who himself was influenced by the Pakistani ideologue Maudadi. Sajjan Gohel does a remarkable job in chronicling this period.
Thereafter, Gohel begins al-Zawahiri's slow entry into militancy, with the latter claiming that global revolution and insurrection should begin at home in Egypt. Ayman al-Zawahiri was part of a clandestine group that sought to take over the Military Technical College near Cairo in 1974, an attempt that proved unsuccessful. He was arrested in 1981 when Islamists around the country were rounded up in the wake of the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. Surprisingly, not much harm came to al-Zawahiri from these two events, and this upped his knack for survival and evading punishment for years to come. During incarceration, al-Zawahiri met bin Laden and thus followed the former's entry into the Arab Mujahideen in Afghanistan. It was here that the Egyptian matured in his long-term thinking and plotted to recruit double and triple agents to send them to the US and infiltrate the US Army. Al-Zawahiri also plotted against his nemesis, the Palestinian-Jordanian Abdullah Azzam, the scholar who founded the Maktab al-Khadamat, MAK, or the Services Office to provide logistics, training and religious guidance to the Mujahideen. Azzam, who created the international jihadist template of sorts didn't get along with al-Zawahiri on strategic issues after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Azzam was killed in a car bomb in Peshawar in 1989.
Building the Base is probably the best chapter in the book and neatly highlights al-Zawahiri's agenda from trying to topple the Mubarak regime in Egypt to collaborating with bin Laden in Sudan and Afghanistan. With al-Qaeda having come into existence, the chapter pivots to the northern territory of Afghanistan under the control of the legendary Ahmed Shah Masoud. It was during this period that al-Zawahiri tried his hands at procuring chemical h and biological weaponry, and then 9/9 happened, when Masoud was blown off by a suicide bomber who masqueraded as a journalist. Two days later, 9/11 re-shaped the world order. Al-Zawahiri was initially opposed to 9/11 fearing devastating repercussions, but nevertheless persisted with bin Laden's dogmatic reasoning behind the attacks, and helped propagate the jihadi ideology by making full use of the media landscape that was fast catching up to reach every corner of the world. Despite Mullah Omar's blessings of full protection against the US attacks following 9/11, the Al-Qaeda leadership faced an existential threat while hiding in the mountains of Tora Bora on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Eventually, helped by the Pakistani intelligence, ISI, they made their way into Pakistan, and from its soil began unleashing global plots and inspiring affiliates. A series of attacks in Europe meant that al-Qaeda was still a force to reckon with. US' alliance with Musharaf in Pakistan was frought with lack of trust, and when the Navy Seals took out bin Laden from his safe haven in Abottabad, near the HQs of the Pakistani Military Academy and the ISI in 2011, the Obama administration was convinced about the fluctuating loyalty of the Pakistanis in its fight against terror. A more severe threat was lurking around the corner with ISIS about to explode on to the scene. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's ISIS recruited far and wide, including many of the former military personnel from Saddam Hussain's elite guards. ISIS unleashed terror on an unprecedented scale, capturing parts of Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.
In 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, attempted to merge his group with al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, creating ISIS. The Nusra Front rejected this, and al-Zawahiri, as leader of al-Qaeda Central, ordered Baghdadi to return to Iraq. Al-Baghdadi defied al-Zawahiri, leading to an official, public disavowal of ISIS by al-Zawahiri in February 2014. Zawahiri declared that "ISIS isn't a branch of al-Qaeda and we have no organizational relationship with it". Al-Zawahiri criticized ISIS for its extreme violence and brutality, which he believed alienated the broader Muslim community and damaged the jihadist cause. Moreover, al-Zawahiri considered the caliphate declared by al-Baghdadi in June 2014 to be "illegitimate" and a product of "sedition," arguing that it was established without proper consultation among Muslims. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died on October 27, 2019, during a US military raid in Barisha, Syria, where he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and two children, leading to a major blow to the terror group. Al-Zawahiri sighed!
Al-Zawahiri, the medical doctor who practiced as a pediatrician, a teacher, a quiet boy while growing up, and a dreaded terrorist masterminded diabolical plots was on the run for 40 years was finally neutralized in 2022, ridding the world of an extremist known for his shadowy and yet masterly demagoguery and affiliations that has left behind a legacy very difficult to purge. Gohel has provided an indispensable volume on terrorism studies. Hopefully, the second edition will be better copy-edited.
Some Misses
Though, Gohel's book is a dense and thoroughly researched work on al-Zawahiri, it has some serious misses. Firstly, there is no mention of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a prominent Afghan warlord and leader of Hezb-e-Islami, who maintained an uneasy, often parallel, alliance with Al-Qaeda, in the post-9/11 fight against US forces in Afghanistan. While Hekmatyar operated somewhat independently from the Taliban, he supported al-Qaeda’s ideology, with many scholars of international terrorist studies suggesting how his men helped Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden evade US forces in 2002.
Secondly, Boko Haram, the notoriously violent Nigerian group finds a fleeting mention, and that too with the Africans pledging allegiance to ISIS, which though factual, lays no stress on the relations with the al-Qaeda or even AQIM (AQ of the Islamic Maghreb). Muhammed Ali, who founded Boko Haram, met Osama bin Laden and other jihadists in Sudan in the 1990s and trained in Afghanistan. (Muhammed Yusuf, who was Ali’s co-leader, was primarily “in charge of” managing relations between Boko Haram, Salafi clerics, and the local government where the group’s training camp was based but became the sole group leader only after Ali’s death in late 2003). In 2003, al-Qaeda’s external operations unit sent a Nigerien al-Qaeda member who pledged baya’a to bin Laden from Pakistan to Nigeria to meet with Muhammed Ali’s deputy leader and plan an attack on United States interests in Nigeria and trainings of Boko Haram with AQIM’s predecessor, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). They had advanced to the stage of storing weapons and scouting targets in Abuja before a Boko Haram courier was arrested in Pakistan and the plot was aborted. The motivation for attacking the United States in Nigeria was to prevent Nigeria from becoming a base for power projection in West Africa on behalf of the “Jews and Crusaders.” Boko Haram/Ansaru member Adam Kambar was with Muhammed Ali at Boko Haram’s training camp in 2002 and later trained with AQIM in 2007 and had a “direct line of communication” to Ayman al-Zawahiri before his death in Nigeria in 2012. The United States designated Kambar (along with Khalid al-Barnawi and Shekau) a terrorist in 2012.
Thirdly, relations between al-Zawahiri and Hamas have been barely explored, for it is well known that the former held a complex, often critical, relationship with Hamas. While occasionally offering qualified support for their fight against Israel, he severely criticized them for participating in democratic elections (2006) and pursuing a nationalist agenda rather than a global jihadist agenda. Hamas, meanwhile, maintained a distinct identity focused on local resistance, often distancing itself from al-Qaeda's ideology. While al-Qaeda affiliates have recently tried to co-opt the conflict following the October 7, 2023, attacks, the historic relationship between the two has been defined more by ideological distance and criticism than by direct partnership.
Fourthly, the Hezbollah angle could have had more space than the obtuse treatment. Yes, both the Al-Qaeda and the Hezbollah belong to the opposite sides on the sectarian divide, they have had collaborations in the past. As former National Security Council members Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon describe in their book, "The Age of Sacred Terror", a small group of al-Qaeda members visited Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon in the mid-1990s. Shortly thereafter, according to testimony from Ali Mohammed, an Egyptian-born US Army sergeant who later served as one of bin Laden’s lieutenants and pled guilty to participating in the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa, Osama bin Laden and Imad Mugniyeh met in Sudan. The two men, who have both topped the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists, agreed Hezbollah would provide the fledgling al-Qaeda organization with explosives and training in exchange for money and manpower. Though it is unclear whether all terms of that agreement were met or the degree to which the two groups have worked together since. Douglas Farah, a journalist and consultant with the NEFA Foundation, a New York-based counterterrorism organization, says Hezbollah helped al-Qaeda traffic its assets through Africa in the form of diamonds and gold shortly after the 9/11 attacks. US and European intelligence reports from that time suggest the two groups were collaborating in such activities as money laundering, gun running, and training. It’s not clear whether these past collaborations were isolated incidents or indications of a broader relationship. Though, IRGC's Shadow Commander, Soleimani's inclusion in the narrative tries to apply the band-aid, but hardly covers the wounds of this cardinal miss.
Fifthly, the Central Asian IMU, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan finds no mention. The IMU has attempted to destabilize the former Soviet Republic and has shifted base to Afghanistan now, some of its members pledged allegiance to ISIS-K. Now, largely on the periphery, the IMU was ideologically under the umbrella of al-Zawahiri, and continues to pose a threat to the Oxus Valley as well as the Xinjiang province in China.
Lastly, the Oxford University Press Edition is littered with typographical errors, oftentimes frustrating to read. A book so well researched otherwise should have been thoroughly copy-edited, which, in the absence, takes a toll on flow and continuity.
Merits
Ayman al-Zawahiri has left a legacy in international jihadist movements that outscored bin Laden's or Baghdadi's or even the killing machine in the form of Zarqawi's has finally got the treatment he deserves in Sajjan Gohel. Starring from the Egyptian Nationalist Cause, the seeds of which were sown by Napoleon Bonaparte's take over of Egypt to the British Colonial period by way of the decline of the Ottomans after WW1 and the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) to post WW2 and the signing of the Camp David Accords, the Egyptian cause of an Islamic State was mushrooming in the philosophical and ideological writings of Sayyid Qutb during the rules of Gamal Naseer and Anwar Sadat. Born in an eminent family of doctors, lawyers and religious personalities, al-Zawahiri's formative years in Cairo were shaped by Naseer's nationalism and the leader's execution of the ideologue, Qutb, who himself was influenced by the Pakistani ideologue Maudadi. Sajjan Gohel does a remarkable job in chronicling this period.
Thereafter, Gohel begins al-Zawahiri's slow entry into militancy, with the latter claiming that global revolution and insurrection should begin at home in Egypt. Ayman al-Zawahiri was part of a clandestine group that sought to take over the Military Technical College near Cairo in 1974, an attempt that proved unsuccessful. He was arrested in 1981 when Islamists around the country were rounded up in the wake of the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. Surprisingly, not much harm came to al-Zawahiri from these two events, and this upped his knack for survival and evading punishment for years to come. During incarceration, al-Zawahiri met bin Laden and thus followed the former's entry into the Arab Mujahideen in Afghanistan. It was here that the Egyptian matured in his long-term thinking and plotted to recruit double and triple agents to send them to the US and infiltrate the US Army. Al-Zawahiri also plotted against his nemesis, the Palestinian-Jordanian Abdullah Azzam, the scholar who founded the Maktab al-Khadamat, MAK, or the Services Office to provide logistics, training and religious guidance to the Mujahideen. Azzam, who created the international jihadist template of sorts didn't get along with al-Zawahiri on strategic issues after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Azzam was killed in a car bomb in Peshawar in 1989.
Building the Base is probably the best chapter in the book and neatly highlights al-Zawahiri's agenda from trying to topple the Mubarak regime in Egypt to collaborating with bin Laden in Sudan and Afghanistan. With al-Qaeda having come into existence, the chapter pivots to the northern territory of Afghanistan under the control of the legendary Ahmed Shah Masoud. It was during this period that al-Zawahiri tried his hands at procuring chemical h and biological weaponry, and then 9/9 happened, when Masoud was blown off by a suicide bomber who masqueraded as a journalist. Two days later, 9/11 re-shaped the world order. Al-Zawahiri was initially opposed to 9/11 fearing devastating repercussions, but nevertheless persisted with bin Laden's dogmatic reasoning behind the attacks, and helped propagate the jihadi ideology by making full use of the media landscape that was fast catching up to reach every corner of the world. Despite Mullah Omar's blessings of full protection against the US attacks following 9/11, the Al-Qaeda leadership faced an existential threat while hiding in the mountains of Tora Bora on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Eventually, helped by the Pakistani intelligence, ISI, they made their way into Pakistan, and from its soil began unleashing global plots and inspiring affiliates. A series of attacks in Europe meant that al-Qaeda was still a force to reckon with. US' alliance with Musharaf in Pakistan was frought with lack of trust, and when the Navy Seals took out bin Laden from his safe haven in Abottabad, near the HQs of the Pakistani Military Academy and the ISI in 2011, the Obama administration was convinced about the fluctuating loyalty of the Pakistanis in its fight against terror. A more severe threat was lurking around the corner with ISIS about to explode on to the scene. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's ISIS recruited far and wide, including many of the former military personnel from Saddam Hussain's elite guards. ISIS unleashed terror on an unprecedented scale, capturing parts of Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.
In 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, attempted to merge his group with al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, creating ISIS. The Nusra Front rejected this, and al-Zawahiri, as leader of al-Qaeda Central, ordered Baghdadi to return to Iraq. Al-Baghdadi defied al-Zawahiri, leading to an official, public disavowal of ISIS by al-Zawahiri in February 2014. Zawahiri declared that "ISIS isn't a branch of al-Qaeda and we have no organizational relationship with it". Al-Zawahiri criticized ISIS for its extreme violence and brutality, which he believed alienated the broader Muslim community and damaged the jihadist cause. Moreover, al-Zawahiri considered the caliphate declared by al-Baghdadi in June 2014 to be "illegitimate" and a product of "sedition," arguing that it was established without proper consultation among Muslims. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died on October 27, 2019, during a US military raid in Barisha, Syria, where he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and two children, leading to a major blow to the terror group. Al-Zawahiri sighed!
Al-Zawahiri, the medical doctor who practiced as a pediatrician, a teacher, a quiet boy while growing up, and a dreaded terrorist masterminded diabolical plots was on the run for 40 years was finally neutralized in 2022, ridding the world of an extremist known for his shadowy and yet masterly demagoguery and affiliations that has left behind a legacy very difficult to purge. Gohel has provided an indispensable volume on terrorism studies. Hopefully, the second edition will be better copy-edited.
May 14, 2024
Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist is the first - and only - authoritative biography of the life and legacy of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The book, which reads like a novel, traces al-Zawahiri from his birth in Egypt, to his instrumental role in masterminding al-Qaeda's global reign of terror, to his eventual demise in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of international terrorism and has been one of my most enjoyable reads of the year so far, I highly recommend it!
January 4, 2025
Sajjan Gohel’s Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist is an absolute masterpiece—one of the most compelling, deeply researched, and thought-provoking biographies I’ve read. Gohel unpacks the life of Ayman al-Zawahiri with unparalleled precision, taking readers on a gripping journey from his privileged beginnings in Cairo to his role as the mastermind behind al-Qaeda’s global network of terror.
What sets this book apart is its remarkable balance between scholarly depth and narrative accessibility. Gohel doesn’t just provide a biography of al-Zawahiri; he intricately weaves the historical, political, and social contexts that shaped his ideological transformation. It’s a fascinating—and chilling—look at how a mild-mannered doctor became one of the world’s most feared terrorists.
Gohel’s research is impeccable, drawing on extensive primary sources and years of expertise in counterterrorism. But what truly elevates this book is its humanity. Rather than reducing al-Zawahiri to a caricature, Gohel presents a multidimensional figure—flawed, fanatical, but also disturbingly methodical and strategic. This nuanced portrayal helps us understand the dangerous interplay between ideology, personal ambition, and geopolitical instability.
This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not just al-Zawahiri, but the broader forces that fuel extremist movements and global terrorism. Whether you’re a scholar, history buff, or just someone looking for a deeply engrossing read, Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist will not disappoint. It’s one of the most important books of our time—both a wake-up call and a call to action. It’s also an ominous warning for the future before it’s too late. Bravo, Sajjan Gohel!
What sets this book apart is its remarkable balance between scholarly depth and narrative accessibility. Gohel doesn’t just provide a biography of al-Zawahiri; he intricately weaves the historical, political, and social contexts that shaped his ideological transformation. It’s a fascinating—and chilling—look at how a mild-mannered doctor became one of the world’s most feared terrorists.
Gohel’s research is impeccable, drawing on extensive primary sources and years of expertise in counterterrorism. But what truly elevates this book is its humanity. Rather than reducing al-Zawahiri to a caricature, Gohel presents a multidimensional figure—flawed, fanatical, but also disturbingly methodical and strategic. This nuanced portrayal helps us understand the dangerous interplay between ideology, personal ambition, and geopolitical instability.
This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not just al-Zawahiri, but the broader forces that fuel extremist movements and global terrorism. Whether you’re a scholar, history buff, or just someone looking for a deeply engrossing read, Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist will not disappoint. It’s one of the most important books of our time—both a wake-up call and a call to action. It’s also an ominous warning for the future before it’s too late. Bravo, Sajjan Gohel!
July 21, 2024
This meticulously researched work offers an unprecedented look into the life of one of the most influential yet under-studied figures in modern terrorism. Gohel's narrative style is gripping, transforming what could have been a dry academic text into an accessible page-turner. Its encyclopedic depth and thorough primary-source collection makes it invaluable for researchers, analysts, policymakers, and students of counter-terrorism, while remaining accessible to general readers interested in al-Zawahiri's influence over a number of terrorist organisations. The author skillfully weaves al-Zawahiri's personal journey with the broader historical context, tracing al-Zawahiri's path from his birth in Egypt through his pivotal role in al-Qaeda, to his death in Kabul in 2022. The inclusion of maps, timelines, and character profiles enhances the reader's understanding, making the complex web of relationships and events more accessible. In sum, "Doctor, Teacher, Terrorist" is a landmark contribution to the field, an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand international terrorism, and a thoroughly enjoyable read!
November 13, 2024
An absolutely fantastic book. I couldn't put it down and would strongly recommend this book to those with prior knowledge and those new to the field. The breadth and depth of information contained within this book is a testament to the capabilities of the author.
April 9, 2024
The author weaves together skillfully the life story of one of the most prolific terrorists ever with the broader dynamics of the global Islamist movement which preceded, accompanied and now outlives him.
I found particularly interesting the complex historical and ideological background in Egypt which evidently greatly influenced Al Zawahri in his actions.
The book is also accessible to the general reader as the language is not unnecessarily academic.
I found particularly interesting the complex historical and ideological background in Egypt which evidently greatly influenced Al Zawahri in his actions.
The book is also accessible to the general reader as the language is not unnecessarily academic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews