I thought he is a yemeni. I read somewhere the father was from South Thailand of yemeni descent. He was a smsll petty trader until either one of this occured that changed his fortune. Met muhyiddin or met Syed Kechik and took syed kechik daughter from second marriage as second wife.
His fortune took a turn for the better after that.
His empire however does not seem to be held by him. umno treasurer who are not listed as directors nor shareholder will discuss on companies behalf.
Syed Kechik made his fortune being a lawyer in Sabah for Tun Mustapha.originated from kedah also.
i too have read that syed al buhary family originated from India but could not find the link now ,but it's possible the the father from s Thailand as I have found Indian Muslim traders all over SEA ...remember ,my first time visit to Vietnam 1 year after its fall ,it was half half Indian Muslim Vietnamese who provided me prata in a mosque
now ,syeds are quite prominent in this region both in businesses and academia ..and pretty well established in malaysian politics too ..my hunch is they settled in India for the first few generation ,just like the Parsees or Bhadadid Jews who also settled in India first ,than migrated to this region as trading merchants ...
my speculation is the Sri Lanka Muslim folks and those from s.india or the mamak as we call them share the yemeni descendency..and the fact is most of Sinkiland businesses were in mamak control and not the chinese while the biggest trading houses were the British....but when PAP took control the entire landscape of businesses changed ...remember LKY had his office in Chulia street as a lawyer and the entire battery road of that time belonged to the Indian Muslims...it was during the Nadhira riot that LKY saw those Indian Muslims financial might that helped the Malays and something must have troubled him as he marginalised both
now even in Malaysia the political control is with the Indian Muslims it seems ..
Anwar and Mahathir are an example but DAP makes an issue of Mahathir as a mamak but hides the fact that Anwars father is indeed a mamak
now as for Thailand, i know for a fact that the ruby trade is entirely control by the Indian Muslims..perhaps the diamond business too ..
even in HK these mamak controlled the diamond business and built the only mosque in Nathan Rd in kowloon
my interest started when I came across these Indian Muslims aka Yemenis in places like Rangoon ,Vietnam and Indonesia where nobody visited in those days ...it seems these yemeni traders married local where ever they were