Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's Testimony on Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Muhammad al-Jowlani)

The figure of Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa (previously better known as Abu Muhammad al-Jowlani) has again come into the spotlight recently because of his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia and Trump’s announcement of his intention to lift sanctions on Syria. As such, there will naturally be questions about al-Sharaa’s jihadist past and it is very much worthwhile to find, translate and disseminate testimonies on the matter.

As a follow-up to former Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani’s testimony on al-Sharaa, I present Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s testimony on al-Sharaa, written at the end of March 2013 CE, just prior to Baghdadi’s announcement of the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham.’ Among the key points of the testimony: