A one-time guerrilla leader, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 after signing a peace deal with Israel, an agreement which later collapsed. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease and other ailments in recent years. Known to be ill for the past three weeks, Arafat had been thought to have flu, stomach cancer and later - apparently accurately - a large gallstone.
For the Middle East, his death leaves uncertainty, and perhaps chaos, in its wake.
For Palestinians, he provided a symbol of continuity, linking the era before the state of Israel was formed - when most of the region was under British control - to the modern period when Israel became one of the most formidable military powers in the Middle East.
He spent most of his life in exile, jetting between world capitals in private planes for seemingly endless meetings and consultations. Arafat, with his familiar checked headscarf, was one of the most easily recognizable political leaders in the world, although he lacked a fixed address and a formal position as a chief of state.
His goal was always the same - to establish an independent Palestinian state to redress the loss of Palestinian land to the Israelis. To millions of Palestinians spread throughout the world, he seemed to represent the best, and at times the only, hope of regaining the land and dignity seized by Israel.
He was reviled by many Israelis, revered by masses of Palestinians and alternately courted and scorned by frustrated Western and Arab leaders who found him wily and unpredictable but possessing impressive staying power and perseverance.
Like a cat with nine lives, he survived a plane crash, assassination attempts by both the Israelis and rivals within the Palestinian camp, and near the end of his life he endured a long confinement at the hands of the Israelis, who ringed his office compound with tanks and troops.
Arafat was capable of brilliant tactical moves and also made stunning errors in judgment, including his decision to support Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. That blunder briefly made him a pariah in the West and cost him vital financial support from the Gulf states.
The future Palestinian leader was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1929, to parents who could have had deep roots in Palestine. His father was a merchant from the Gaza Strip, and his mother also came from the area.
