Jamal Khashoggi’s family history was bound up with political intrigue and prominent figures in the Middle East even before his mysterious disappearance from a Saudi Arabian consulate.

The Washington Post columnist, who vanished in Istanbul and Turkey says was killed by the Saudis, counted relatives who rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty. He, too, became a consummate Saudi insider, before shifting to critic of the royal court and disappearing in a suspicious fashion that has roiled the kingdom’s relations with the U.S. and Turkey.

Some of his relatives were famous, others infamous. The Khashoggi family served the Ottoman Empire in Islam’s holy lands for centuries after leaving Anatolia, the heartland of current-day Turkey. A grandfather became personal physician to modern Saudi Arabia’s first ruler, King Abdulaziz Al Saud, after the Ottomans left in the early 20th century.