Saleh Kamel: The Founder of Dallah Al Baraka and a Pioneer of Islamic Banking

Saleh Abdullah Kamel was a Saudi businessman who founded the Dallah Al Baraka Group and helped build Al Baraka into one of the first multinational Islamic banking networks. He chaired the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, and died in Jeddah on 18 May 2020 at 79, according to Al Baraka’s announcement.

Quick facts: who was Saleh Kamel?

How did Saleh Kamel build his business?

Kamel was born in Mecca in 1941 and graduated in commerce from the University of Riyadh in 1963, according to his Wikipedia biography. He went on to found Dallah Al Baraka, a Saudi holding company that Al Baraka describes as one of the largest business groups in the Kingdom. He also chaired the board of ART, the Arab Radio and Television Network, whose sports channels carried the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups in the Middle East before they were sold to Al Jazeera in 2009.

What did he build in Islamic finance?

His most lasting work was in banking. In the late 1970s he established one of the early banks operating on Islamic principles, which later grew into Al Baraka Banking Group, Salaam Gateway reported. He also created Al Baraka Investment and Development, a holding company for Islamic banks, financial institutions and companies in several countries.

The group’s model was distinctive. Instead of building one large bank in one market, Al Baraka set up or acquired banks across the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Pakistan and South Africa, each licensed locally. Today the group’s network includes Albaraka Türk, Jordan Islamic Bank, Al Baraka Bank Pakistan and Al Baraka Bank South Africa among others. You can read more in our profile of Al Baraka Group.

Kamel was also an institution-builder for the industry as a whole. He chaired the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), the Bahrain-based trade body for Islamic banks, and served on the President’s Advisory Panel of the Islamic Development Bank.

What other roles did he hold?

• President of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture
• President of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Board member of the Islamic Solidarity Fund, the Arab Thought Foundation and the Arab Academy for Finance and Banking

His awards included the Islamic Banker Award (1995), Banker of the Year from the Union of Arab Banks (1996), the King Abdulaziz Decoration (2001) and Malaysia’s Royal Award for Islamic Finance (2010).

Who leads Al Baraka today?

His son, Shaikh Abdullah Saleh Kamel, became chairman of the group in June 2020. In 2025 Al Baraka Group reported record net income of US$357 million and total assets of US$31 billion, the highest since its inception, according to the group’s results announcement.

Why does his legacy matter?

Many early Islamic banks were single-country projects. Kamel’s approach treated Islamic banking as a cross-border business, and the network he built gave Islamic finance a local presence in markets as different as Algeria, Tunisia, Pakistan and South Africa. His work at CIBAFI also reflected a view that the industry needed shared institutions, not only individual banks.

For entrepreneurs, his career is a reminder that Islamic finance in its early decades was built largely by private business founders, not only by governments and scholars.

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