Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, “The Qadiri-

yyah Order.” In Islamic Spirituality, 2 vols., edited by 

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2: 6–25 (New York: Crossroad, 

1991); J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders of Islam

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Abd al-Rahman, Umar

 

(1938–  )  a blind 

radical Islamic leader who was implicated in the 

assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat  

(d. 1981) and the 1993 New York World Trade 

Center bombing

Umar Abd al-Rahman was born in al-Gamalaya, 

e

gypt

, in 1938, and lost his sight very early in life. 

After learning Braille as a young child, he excelled 

at his studies. By age 11, Abd al-Rahman had 

memorized the q

Uran

. Having been trained in a 

series of traditional Islamic learning academies, 

including al-a

zhar

 University, he received his 

doctorate in 1972. He is best known for his work 

as a preacher and as an Islamist organizer and 

activist. In this capacity, throughout the 1970s 

and 1980s, Abd al-Rahman ran afoul of Egyptian 

authorities, most notoriously for allegedly issuing 

the 

FatWa

 (religious edict) leading to Egyptian 

president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981.

Abd al-Rahman has been linked to two Egyp-

tian Islamist organizations, 

Jihad

 and the Jamaa 

Islamiyya. As a result of his involvement with 

these organizations and his criticism of the Egyp-

tian state, Abd al-Rahman was imprisoned a num-

ber of times, including after Jamal Abd al-Nasir’s 

death in 1970 and after Sadat’s assassination. 

Through his involvement with Islamist networks, 

he became active in anti-Soviet resistance in 

a

Fghanistan

 in the early 1980s, raising money 

and recruiting through his preaching and organi-

zational activities. Abd al-Rahman is said to have 

established links with the Central Intelligence 

Agency (CIA), who offered funding and military 

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