Steve CollAllen Lane, £25
THEY descend from a patriarch who made a fortune in the wild west of early 20th century capitalism. Their family history is haunted by aeroplane crashes, illegitimate children and the great expectatio
ns of a public life. Many of them were educated at elite prep schools and America's best universities. They are not the Kennedys, but another dynasty – the bin Ladens.
In this fascinating, well-told new book, Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Coll paints a vivid portrait of Saudia Arabia's most visible merchant class family.
Dynasty founder Mohammed bin Laden left the desert wilds of Yemen, came to Saudi Arabia and earned a fortune as a foreman, at first through sweat, labour and talent, and later by manipulating his connections to the royal family. If the king needed a power station, bin Laden would underbid the contract and build it. His small army of workers built roads and dams and even Saudi military bases.
Coll never lets the taint which Osama bin Laden, one of Mohammed's 54 legitimate children, has brought to this family colour his writing. Instead, The Bin Ladens spins a family tale full of intrigue, and in so doing tells us more about the man behind al-Qaeda than any other book published to date.
One of the key figures to emerge from the portrait is not Osama, but his eldest half-brother Salem, a fast-living prankster educated in England who became the family hub after his father's death in a plane crash. Unlike the quiet and shy Osama, he had the stamina and desire to please to keep the large family together.
But he has apparently done it his own way. Salem branched out into American real estate, buying up tracts of land outside Orlando, taking relatives to Disney World. After haemorrhoid surgery in the US, he liked to show pictures of his rear to the royal family.
The Bin Ladens relies upon details to make Osama's story tangible. Many of them here point to the importance of family in bin Laden's life, of revenge, of the inherited ambition to do something for the kingdom. Here's one, though, that will be hard to forget. Five of the 19 hijackers involved in 9/11 were recruited from the Saudi village where bin Laden's father died in a plane crash. The pilot of that plane was American.
The full article contains 407 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
