As straightforward as these words may sound, they bring up a lot of questions. If al-Maqdisi was born in Barqa (also pronounced as Burqa), a small village on the West Bank, why does he call himself ‘al-Maqdisi’ (the Jerusalemite)? Moreover, if he is Palestinian – whether from Barqa or from Jerusalem – how can he claim to be ʿUtaybi (i.e., of the central Arabian ʿUtayba tribe)? In fact, why does he mention this at all? Such questions show that the quote opening this chapter is not as simple as it seems. In fact, al-Maqdisi's name is exemplary of his life in general in the sense that much of it is unknown in the existing information about him. As we will see in Chapter 5, however, seemingly trivial things such as al-Maqdisi's name and descent proved to be quite important to certain people.

This chapter starts with al-Maqdisi's childhood years in the West Bank and Kuwait, before moving on to the important period of his life spent studying in Saudi Arabia and writing and teaching in Pakistan/Afghanistan, where he came into contact with people who would later play major roles in al-Qaʿida. Finally, we will focus on the period since 1992, when al-Maqdisi moved to Jordan, where he still lives (in prison since September 2010) and became embroiled in a troubled relationship with Abu Musʿab al-Zarqawi, and started becoming the major radical ideologue he is today. This chapter concentrates on the first fifty years of al-Maqdisi's life (1959–2009) and shows that his quietist Jihadi-Salafism is a position that he slowly but surely acquired through multiple and rather diverse Islamic sources.