Among the stories about Omar, self-declared commander of the Muslim faithful in Afghanistan, is one about his single eye.

A mujahed, or holy warrior, in the fight against the Soviet Union, Omar was struck in the eye by a shard of shrapnel and wounded. According to myth, he performed surgery on himself with a knife and removed the eye. According to his own followers, Omar was wounded in the eye but treated by others.

Part myth, part reality, Omar is the final word on everything in Afghan territory ruled by the Taliban militia.

The 41-year-old cleric is described as a quiet man, tall, with a fair complexion and a black bushy beard. He seldom meets anyone who is not Afghan and rarely sees non-Muslims.

Those who have met him describe Omar as a man of few words and unshakable Muslim faith. His interpretation of Islam is rigid and uncompromising, and neither foes nor friends hold much sway over him.

According to the uncle of one of his three wives, Omar has regular meetings with old friends in his home in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. The room is sparsely furnished, said Nida Mohammed, Omar's children play at his feet or sit on his knee. He is believed to have six children - five boys and a girl.

Pakistan's interior minister, Moinuddin Haider, once complained bitterly to Omar about the Taliban's bleak international reputation and the damage it causes Pakistan - one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban. Omar was unrepentant and reportedly told Haider to withdraw Pakistan's recognition if it was a problem.

Self-declared ''Amir-ul-Momineen,'' or ''commander of the Muslim faithful,'' Omar began as a mullah, or preacher, in a mosque in his village of Singhesar where he would hold prayer services in exchange for money to feed his family. That was until 1979 when the former Soviet Union sent in troops to support a leftist government. He laid down his Quran and picked up his gun.

Soviet troops were dispatched to Kandahar, a city near Singhesar, to try and subdue the fierce Pathan tribes there. In the deeply lush areas of orchards and trees, Omar and his band of warriors called themselves Talibs, meaning Islamic religious students.

When the former Soviet Union withdrew in February 1989, Omar returned to the mosque.

He prayed while heavily armed warlords, former commanders in the Islamic insurgency that forced a Soviet withdrawal, divided southern Kandahar into small fiefdoms, robbing and extorting money from travelers.

According to legend, in 1994 Omar had a dream.

He dreamt that he was called by God to lead a revolt against the warlords, who were terrorizing the area. Even the United Nations fell victim to them, having entire convoys of food trucks plundered.

Some within the Taliban say the stories about the dream are apocryphal but his fellow villagers insist they are fact.

Enter Pakistan.

In 1994, a convoy of Pakistani trucks was hijacked in Afghanistan. It was destined for Central Asia, sent out from Pakistan to open a new trade route. Benazir Bhutto, then Pakistan's prime minister, and her interior minister, Nasrullah Babaar - an ethnic Pathan like Omar and most of the Talibs - went to Kandahar to seek the young cleric's help.

The Taliban, who rule most of Afghanistan, are often said to be the creation of Pakistan. Babaar has said that Omar's help in retrieving the convoy of trucks marked the beginning of Pakistani aid to the cleric and his men.

Omar's men used the aid from Pakistan to better arm themselves. They moved quickly to disarm the warlords around Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. Within months they began to sweep westward toward Herat, where former anti-communist guerrilla leader Ismail Khan ruled. But Omar's fighters rode into town hardly firing a shot. Khan fled to Iran in a convoy of 50 trucks.

The march through the country had begun.

More myths began to emerge, of Taliban soldiers lumbering down the road on tanks holding Qurans - the Muslim holy book - to their foreheads, daring anyone to fire. No one did.

After successive victories they besieged the Afghan capital, Kabul, vowing to throw out the warring Islamic factions that ruled there. In September 1996 the Taliban drove President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defense chief, Ahmed Shah Massood, from the city.

The man who began the Taliban movement now lives some nine miles outside of Kandahar, as he has since a bomb exploded near his home in the city in 1999, killing 40 people.

Omar is rarely seen in public. He is known to have traveled to Kabul only three times since 1996, usually staying briefly and spending most of his time with his troops.

Omar himself says of his movement: ''Ours is a jihad against those who brought suffering on the Afghan people and violated Islamic teachings. The Taliban will fight 'til there is no blood in Afghanistan left to be shed and Islam becomes a way of life for our people.''