Mohamed Atta
Atta was born on September 1, 1968, in Kafr el-Sheikh, located in Egypt's Nile Delta region. His father, Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, was a lawyer, educated in both sharia and civil law. His mother, Bouthayna Mohamed Mustapha Sheraqi, came from a wealthy farming and trading family and was also educated. Bouthayna and Mohamed married when she was 14, via an arranged marriage. The family had few relatives on the father's side and kept a distance from Bouthayna's family. In-laws characterized Atta's father as "austere, strict, and private," and neighbors considered the family reclusive. Atta was the only son; he had two older sisters who are both well-educated and successful in their careers — one as a medical doctor and the other as a professor.
Musa al-Sadr
Born in the Chaharmardan neighbourhood of Qom, Iran, he underwent both seminary and secular studies in Iran. He belongs to the Sadr family from Jabal Amel in Lebanon, a branch of Musawi family tracing to Musa Ibn Jaafar, the seventh Shia Imam and ultimately to the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. Therefore, Musa al-Sadr is often styled with the honorific title "Sayyid". He left Qom for Najaf to study theology and returned to Iran after the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état.