Explained: Who is Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the new Islamic State head?

Explained: Who is the new caliph of the IS?

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi is almost certainly a nom de guerre. The “al-Qurayshi” in the name is the adjective that indicates the caliph’s descendance from the Quraysh tribe of Prophet Muhammad. Al-Baghdadi made the same claim — he was born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri in Jallam in central Iraq, a village inhabited by the al-Badri tribe, which traces its lineage to the Quraysh. A link to the Quraysh tribe is an essential requirement for staking claim to leadership of the caliphate.

Virtually nothing is known about Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, and counterterrorism analysts were scrambling Thursday to get information on him. “Nobody — and I mean nobody outside a likely very small circle within ISIS — have any idea who their new leader ‘Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi’ is,” Paul Cruickshank, editor of the CTC Sentinel at the Combating Terrorism Center, posted on Twitter.

Cruickshank noted that the IS “has not yet released any meaningful biographical details which might allow analysts to pinpoint his identity”. In the audio note posted on Telegram, IS only said that Al-Qurayshi was a “prominent figure in jihad” who had fought against the US in the past.

There was some speculation that Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi may be a new nom de guerre of Hajji Abdullah, who appears in recently recovered internal Islamic State records archived by the researcher Aymenn al-Tamimi, The New York Times said in a report.

Is it unusual that a “caliph” should have no profile to speak of?

It isn’t for a terrorist organisation whose leadership the militaries and intelligence agencies of multiple countries are hunting. Creating confusion and ensuring operational security would be among its core objectives.

The NYT quoted Daniele Raineri, a journalist and analyst who has been studying the IS leadership structure for more than a decade, as saying IS leaders often acquire a new nom de guerre with the appointment to a new position — which means that al-Qurayshi may have had a completely different name last week.

Experts have pointed out that when al-Baghdadi became the head of IS in 2010, he too was a largely unknown figure outside of the organisation.

Raineri told The NYT that the names of both the new caliph Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, as well as the new spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, which too was announced by IS, were “the most generic names I can think of in a long time”.

Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi replaced Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, who was killed a day after al-Baghdadi. He had widely been considered a potential successor to al-Baghdadi. Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, given the indication of the Prophet’s lineage in his name, could also be a potential successor after Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi.

The use of common nom de guerres is probably intended to “obfuscate on purpose the possible links to people we know”, Raineri was quoted as saying in The NYT report.