They trace his story from a shy 6-year-old in Lebanon who could recite the Quran, through the moment he cast off his clerical robe for a rifle, to the question that still lingers: how deep a wound has he left in the “axis of evil”?

In the summer of 1990, Hassan Nasrallah arrived at a Hezbollah outpost near the village of Aklam al-Tuffah in southern Lebanon. At 30, he was already rising swiftly in the organization, admired for his intelligence, sharp tongue, and loyalty, as well as for the ties he forged with Iran’s ayatollah regime, which funneled money and ideology to Hezbollah.

At the time, though, Nasrallah was still known mainly as a cleric. No one imagined he would one day rule Hezbollah with an iron fist.