According to his birth records, Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al Qudwa al-Hussein was born August 24, 1929 in Cairo, Egypt. His official biography, however, claims he was born in Jerusalem, Palestine.
His mother died when he was four and he moved to live with an uncle in Jerusalem for four years, before returning to Egypt to live with his elder sister.
Before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem was part of Palestine, a region created by British mandate after World War I.
Yasser Arafat greets supporters at his office September 27, 2004 in Ramallah, in the West Bank. (Inset): An undated picture from the Palestinian Authority's archives shows a young Arafat at an unspecified location.
Photograph: PPO via Getty Images and AFP/Getty Images
Also See: A Historic Visit