The Bin Ladens by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, traces the family’s rise to prominence in Saudi society through the 20th century and how its fate, and that of Osama in Particular, was inextricably linked with the royal family’s.

By putting Osama’s life in the context of his 53 globetrotting family members, and the upheavals facing Saudi Arabia, Coll seeks to dispel some of the myths surrounding bin Laden.

Osama was around nine years old when his father died in a Plane crash in 1967. While immersing himself in Islamic studies at school, the boy found new father figures in radical mentors who later introduced him to the idea of “transnational jihad”.

His elder half-brother Salem was a very different character: a larger-than-life, jetsetting playboy who took over the family business and wooed the Saudi royals with his boyish charm.

The reward was construction contracts and a family fortune crucial to Osama’s role as mastermind of the Sep. 11 attacks.

Rift with family

While the brothers followed different paths, Salem remained an important influence over Osama. But Salem’s death in 1988 in a flying accident left the dynasty adrift, and contributed to Osama’s growing rifts with his family and with the Saudi authorities, Coll argues. It also came at a time when the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was winding down, encouraging Osama and other radical leaders to consider a broader armed struggle.

“I met so many friends of Salem who, without prompting, said if he had lived, September 11 would not have happened, and you can see their case,” Coll said.

“You can just imagine at that moment in the early 90s... Salem would just have figured out a way to bring Osama back in the mainstream,” Coll said.