Editing Mullah Omar (section)

== Early life and education ==
[[File:Mohammed Omar in 1978.jpg|thumb|left|Omar as an 18-year-old [[Hafiz (Quran)|''hafiz'']] student, 1978<ref>{{cite news |title=Rare new picture of Taliban founder Mullah Omar surfaces |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/rare-new-picture-of-taliban-founder-mullah-omar-surfaces/articleshow/49326405.cms |access-date=26 June 2022 |work=[[Agence France-Presse]] |agency=[[The Economic Times]] |date=12 October 2015}}</ref>|upright=0.75]]

Muhammed Omar was born in 1960 into a poor and large [[Pashtun]] family in the village of ''Chah-i-Himmat'' in [[Khakrez District|Khakrez]] of [[Kandahar Province|Kandahar]], [[Kingdom of Afghanistan]].<ref name="BBC_20150405">{{cite news|title=Afghan Taliban publish Mullah Omar biography |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32189847 |work=[[BBC News]]|date=5 April 2015 |access-date=26 September 2021}}</ref><ref name="tel1" /> He came from a line of Islamic scholars and teachers.<ref name="Mutmaen">{{cite book |author=Abdul Hai Mutma'in |year=2019 |title=Taliban: A Critical History from Within |location=Berlin |publisher=First Draft Publishing |isbn=978-3-944214-26-9}}</ref> At {{convert|6|ft|6|in|abbr=on|order=flip}} tall, he was the tallest boy in his family.<ref name="conflict" /><ref name="Ismail Khan 1996, p. 226">Ismail Khan, "Mojaddedi Opposes Elevation of Taliban's Omar", ''Islamabad the News'', 6 April 1996, quoted in Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p. 226</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite news |author=Robert Marquand |date=10 October 2001 |title=The reclusive ruler who runs the Taliban |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1010/p1s4-wosc.html}}</ref>

His father was [[Mawlawi (Islamic title)|Mawlawi]] Ghulam Nabi,<ref name="BBC_20150405" /> his grandfather Mawlawi Muhammad Rasool, and his great-grandfather Mawlawi Baz Muhammad.<ref name="Mutmaen" /> They were of the Tomzi clan of the [[Hotak]] tribe,<ref name="BBC_20150405" /><ref name="Mutmaen" /> which is part of the larger [[Ghilji]] tribal confederation of the Pashtuns.<ref name="Rashid">[[Ahmed Rashid|Rashid]], ''Taliban'', (2001)</ref> His father, born in Khakrez District,<ref name="Mutmaen" /> was a poor, landless itinerant teacher who taught the [[Quran]] to village boys and received [[alms]] from their families.<ref name="coll">{{cite news |last1=Coll|first1=Steve|title=Looking For Mullah Omar |magazine=The New Yorker|date=23 January 2012 |url= https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/23/looking-for-mullah-omar |access-date=26 September 2021}}</ref> He died when Omar was three years old, according to Omar's own words,<ref name="Aljazeera_interview" /> or five years old, according to the Taliban biography.<ref name="BBC_20150405" /> Thereafter Omar was raised by his uncles.<ref name="Aljazeera_interview">{{cite interview |subject=Mohammed Omar |title=نص كلمة زعيم طالبان رداً على أسئلة الجزيرة نت / Naṣṣ kalimat za'īm Ṭālibān raddan 'alá as'alat al-Jazīrah Nit |trans-title=Text of Taliban chief's words in response to questions from Aljazeera.net |url= http://www.aljazeera.net/news/international/2001/1/11/نص-كلمة-زعيم-طالبان-رداً-على-أسئلة-الجزيرة-نت |website=aljazeera.net|language=ar|date=11 January 2001}} [https://archive.org/download/Skieli11/mull_omar.mp3 Audio link] (in Pashto with Arabic voiceover).</ref> One of his father's brothers, Maulawi Muzafer, married Omar's widowed mother,<ref name="Gall_20020522" /> as was often done in rural Afghanistan.<ref name="coll" />

The family moved to the village of Dehwanawark, several miles from the town of [[Deh Rawood]],<ref name="Gall_20020522">{{cite news|last1=Gall|first1=Carlotta|title=Seeking Mullah Omar in a land of secrets |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/22/international/asia/22AFGH.html |work=The New York Times|date=22 May 2002}}</ref> in the poor [[Deh Rawood District]] in [[Uruzgan Province]], where the uncle was a religious teacher.<ref name="coll" /> According to former [[President of Afghanistan|Afghan President]] [[Hamid Karzai]], "Omar's father was a local religious leader, but the family was poor and had absolutely no political links in Kandahar or Kabul. They were essentially lower middle class Afghans and were definitely not members of the elite."{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Omar studied at a religious school or [[madrasa]] run by his uncle.<ref>{{cite news |last=Watson |first=Ivan |date=6 April 2015 |title=Mullah Omar is still the leader of the Taliban, new biography claims |newspaper=[[CNN]] |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/06/asia/taliban-mullah-omar-biography/index.html |access-date=26 September 2021}}</ref> According to [[Anand Gopal|Gopal]] and Strick van Linschoten, all of his religious education was in Afghan hujras, which are small religious schools annexed to village mosques.<ref name="Gopal_2017">{{cite web |last1=Gopal |first1=Anand |author-link1=Anand Gopal |last2=Strick van Linschoten |first2=Alex |date=June 2017 |title=Ideology in the Afghan Taleban |url=https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/201705-AGopal-ASvLinschoten-TB-Ideology.pdf |access-date=26 September 2021 |publisher=Afghanistan Analysts Network |pages=10, 31, 34}}</ref> He completed his primary and secondary religious education, then began higher religious studies at 18.<ref name="Mutmaen" /> His studies were interrupted<ref>{{cite book |last=Rashid |first=Ahmed |title=Taliban: The Power of Militant Islam in Afghanistan and Beyond |date=2010 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-84885-446-8 |edition=Rev. |page=24 |author-link=Ahmed Rashid |orig-date=}}</ref> before he completed them and he did not properly earn the title "Mullah".<ref name="Gopal_2017" /> Later in life he was given an honorary degree by the [[Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia]] seminary in [[Karachi]], [[Pakistan]], but he never studied there,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gunaratna |first1=Rohan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QD9qPQznBXYC&pg=PA41 |title=Pakistan: Terrorism Ground Zero |last2=Iqbal |first2=Khuram |date=2012 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78023-009-2 |page=41}}</ref> contrary to some reports. He was also given an honorary doctorate by [[Darul Uloom Haqqania]] in northwestern Pakistan, where numerous other senior [[Taliban]] leaders studied.<ref>Mark Magnier (30 May 2009). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-may-30-fg-madrasa30-story.html Pakistan religious schools get scrutiny], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref> Some sources have claimed that he studied there, but its leader [[Sami-ul-Haq]] said that he did not know of Omar until 1994.<ref>[[Ahmed Rashid|Rashid, Ahmed]] (2010). ''Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.'' 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press). p. 91.</ref>

Much of Omar's early and personal life remains either secret or is the subject of conflicting reports.<ref name="tel1" /><ref name="BBC_20150405" /> In April 2015, during the time when his death was being kept secret, the Taliban published a biography of Omar to mark his "19th year as their supreme leader", when in fact he had already died on 23 April 2013.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}