Over two decades – from the very first known photo of him, taken in 2006 during his incarceration at the American-run Camp Bucca prison in Iraq, to his most recent appearances in a suit and tie at the Syrian presidential palace on the heights of Mount al-Mazzeh, west of Damascus – Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, whose real name is Ahmed al-Charaa, has undergone a long series of physical and sartorial transformations reflecting his shifts in political positioning.

This ideological nomadism has seen him move from Zarqawi’s organization to the Islamic State in Iraq (the precursor of ISIS), then to the al-Nusra Front (the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda), before trading his jihadist turban for an Erdogan-inspired Muslim Brotherhood suit and tie, enabling him to effectively take the place of the deposed despot Bashar al-Assad, ousted by force of arms.

1. In the Shadow of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Al-Joulani was born in October 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where his father – a member of a Syrian Sunni tribe – worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Petroleum. The al-Charaa family originally came from Deraa and settled on the Golan Heights in the late 1930s. After Israel annexed the Golan in 1967, part of the family returned to their tribal stronghold in Deraa’s al-Kasheef neighborhood. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice President, Farouk al-Charaa, is from this lineage. Another branch of the family settled in Damascus, in the al-Mazzeh district, where al-Joulani grew up after returning from Saudi Arabia in 1989.

Enrolled in journalism at the University of Damascus, he decided to abandon his studies at the age of 21 to pursue jihad in Iraq. During the summer of 2003, he joined the most radical jihadist organization of the time: that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, where he became one of his close associates. At that time, he wore a white turban embroidered with Bedouin arabesques.

2. Among the Ranks of the ISI, the Precursor of ISIS

After al-Zarqawi’s death in 2006, al-Joulani left Iraq, sought refuge in Lebanon, and became close to the Lebanese-Palestinian jihadist group Jund al-Sham. However, Palestinian secular factions soon declared war on this group in the Ain al-Hilweh camp. Al-Joulani then returned to Iraq. Arrested by the Americans, he was held at Camp Bucca from 2006 to 2011. There, he met none other than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the future leader of ISIS. Upon his release, he joined him within the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), which was then a branch of al-Qaeda. During this period, he wore a black turban, grew a beard, and shaved his mustache, adhering to the most rigid Salafist tradition.

3. Divorce from al-Baghdadi, Allegiance to al-Zawahiri

After the outbreak of the anti-Assad uprising in March 2011, al-Baghdadi decided to extend his activities to Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) then became the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), more commonly known as ISIS. Al-Joulani was tasked by al-Baghdadi to oversee the organization’s forces in Syria. However, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden in May 2011, opposed al-Baghdadi’s entry into the Syrian conflict and ordered him to return to Iraq. Al-Baghdadi refused, broke ties with al-Qaeda, and declared himself caliph. Al-Joulani opposed this rebellion by ISIS and renewed his allegiance to al-Zawahiri.

4. The Rise of Jabhat al-Nusra

Under the direction of Ayman al-Zawahiri, a new branch of al-Qaeda was established in Syria under the name Jabhat al-Nusra in January 2012. Al-Joulani was elected emir of this organization. This marked the beginning of a long and bloody fratricidal war between the jihadists of al-Nusra and their former companions in ISIS.

Al-Baghdadi attempted to reclaim, by force, the weapons and troops he had given to al-Joulani in March 2011, when he had tasked him with establishing the Islamic State on Syrian territory. However, al-Nusra resisted and eventually established itself as al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria. Al-Joulani made his first videos as al-Qaeda’s regional emir in the Levant, in which he appeared masked, once again wearing a white turban instead of ISIS’s black turban.

5. Amicable Split from al-Qaeda

Four years later, in the spring of 2016, al-Qaeda’s central leadership decided to grant its regional branches (in Syria, the Sahel, and the Caucasus) greater independence, allowing them to detach themselves from the global jihad and focus on local causes specific to their areas of operation. This strategy, devised by Ayman al-Zawahiri, reflected his concerns that al-Qaeda had become a “landless legion” and recommended using the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring to reconnect jihad with the aspirations of the region’s peoples to overthrow despotic regimes.

It was in this context that al-Joulani appeared for the first time with his face uncovered, in a video broadcast on July 28, 2016. In this video, he announced that Jabhat al-Nusra had separated from al-Qaeda with the “mutual agreement” of its emir, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to establish Jabhat Fath al-Sham (the Front for the Liberation of the Levant).

The goal was to present this new organization not as the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, but as a local Levantine group designed to unite jihadist organizations appearing from the collapse of ISIS, whose so-called caliphate, based in Raqqa, had just been destroyed by the international coalition.

6. At the Helm of the “Salvation Government” in Idlib

In January 2017, al-Joulani decided to merge Jabhat Fath al-Sham with four other jihadist organizations (Ansar Dine, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki) to form Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). This coalition took control of the Idlib Governorate (in northwestern Syria) and established a “Salvation Government” there, complete with Islamic courts enforcing Sharia law. Al-Joulani assumed the title of military commander of HTS. From that point on, he appeared in military fatigues, though he still wore a modest black turban.

7. General Commander of the New Syria

On November 27, 2024, HTS launched a military offensive called Rad’a al-Udwan (“Repel the Aggressor”) to overthrow the Assad regime. Syrian cities began falling one after another to the jihadists: Aleppo on November 29, Hama on December 5, and Homs on December 6.

On the same day, al-Joulani gave an interview to CNN. He appeared in military fatigues, but this time without a turban. He also abandoned his nom de guerre, presenting himself under his real name: Ahmed al-Charaa. Two days later, Bashar al-Assad fled, and HTS forces entered Damascus. Self-proclaimed as commander-in-chief of military operations, al-Joulani delivered a triumphant speech at the Umayyad Mosque in the heart of the Syrian capital, still in uniform.

Three weeks later, after appointing Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of HTS’s “Salvation Government,” to lead a Syrian transitional government, al-Joulani shed his military uniform. Since December 22, 2024, he has appeared in a suit and tie. At first, he introduces himself as “the head of the general command of Syria.” Then, following the “Victory Congress,” which brought together the various armed factions that took part in the anti-Assad uprising and was held in Damascus on January 29, 2025, the man who no longer wants to be called al-Joulani is “elected” — not through ballots, but through Bay’a, the oath of allegiance process so cherished by jihadists — as “President of the Syrian Arab Republic.”