Infamous son

The Binladins were also no strangers to controversy. They weathered the blow to the family name and reputation after the 9/11 attacks in New York masterminded by Osama bin Laden, a son of family patriarch Mohammed Binladin.

In 1931, the elder Binladin, a poor Yemeni migrant who had traveled north in the 1920s to the Red Sea port of Jiddah, founded the company that bears his name. He married some two dozen women and fathered more than 50 children, including the future al-Qaida leader.

After the 9/11 attacks, the Binladins hired lawyers and public relations specialists in the U.S. to try to communicate their disdain for Osama bin Laden.