Awad bin Aboud bin Laden

The Bin Laden family traces its origins to a poor, uneducated Hadhrami named Awad bin Laden, a Kendah tribesman from the village of Al Rubat, in the Wadi Doan in the Tarim Valley, Hadramout governorate, Yemen. He died in 1919.

His son was Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (died 1967). Mohammed bin Laden was a native of the Shafii (Sunni) Hadhramaut coast in southern Yemen and emigrated to Saudi Arabia prior to World War I.

He set up a construction company and came to Abdul Aziz ibn Saud's attention through construction projects, later being awarded contracts for major renovations at Mecca, where he made his initial fortune from exclusive rights to all mosque and other religious building construction not only in Saudi Arabia, but as far as Ibn Saud's influence reached.

Until his death, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden had exclusive control over restorations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Soon the bin Laden corporate network extended far beyond construction sites.