Background
Muammar was born on 7 June in 1942.
Muammar was born on 7 June in 1942.
Muammar was a student of the Benghazi Military University Academy.
Gaddafi seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1969 and served as the country's head of state until 1977 when he stepped down from his official executive role as Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Libya and claimed subsequently to be merely a symbolic figurehead. He styled himself as "Leader of the Revolution"; in 2008 a meeting of traditional African rulers bestowed on him the title "King of Kings". A leading advocate for a United States of Africa, he served as Chairperson of the African Union (AU) from 2 February 2009 to 31 January 2010.
Gaddafi replaced the Libyan Constitution of 1951 with laws based on the political ideology he had formulated, which he called the Third International Theory and published in The Green Book. After establishing the Jamahiriya system in 1977, he officially stepped down from power and after that time held a largely symbolic role within the country's official governance structure. Rising oil prices and extraction in Libya led to increasing revenues. By exporting as much oil per capita as Saudi Arabia and through various welfare programs, Libya achieved the highest living standards in Africa; Libya remained debt-free.
Critics long described Gaddafi as having been Libya's autocrat or the demagogue, despite the Libyan state's denial of his holding any power. In the 1980s, he acquired chemical weapons, leading to some calling Libya under Gaddafi a pariah state and countries around the world imposing sanctions. Six days after the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 2003 by the United States, Gaddafi renounced Tripoli's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and welcomed international inspections to verify that he would follow through on the commitment.
Muammar married to Fatiha al-Nuri in 1969 (divorced in 1970).
He married to Safia el-Brasai in 1970 (divorced in 2011).
He has eight children.