His Eminence Sheikh al Azhar Dr Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi

His Eminence Sheikh al Azhar Dr Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi

Grand Sheikh of the Al Azhar University,
Grand Imam of the Al Azhar Mosque

Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi is the Grand Imam of the Al Azhar Mosque and the Grand Sheikh of the Al Azhar University—the second oldest university in the world, founded in 975 CE. He is the leading authority for the vast majority of Sunni Muslims, and the head of the foremost Islamic educational institution.

Spiritual Leader of Al Azhar University

Tantawi's central influence comes from his position as the current head of the Al Azhar University. Al Azhar is the second oldest university in the world, and is the premier institution for Sunni Islamic scholarship, with a global outreach through 72 feeder schools, and more affiliated organizations. At any one time there are close to 300,000 students studying at Al Azhar, whose degrees will make them well-respected scholars of Islam in their communities. Including schools that are part of Al Azhar waqf initiatives there are close to 2 million students. This immense size and grounded respect make the head of Al Azhar an extraordinarily powerful and academically influential person. His position at the head of such an organization is due to his education in the leading institutions of Islamic education around the world. He has been a student of the Islamic sciences for over 60 years—studying in Egypt and Libya before leading the postgraduate department of Qur’anic commentary (tafsir) at the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia. In the mid-eighties Tantawi moved back to Egypt to head Al Azhar's faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic, before being made Mufti of Egypt—a position he held for 10 years until he became the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar.

Key Commentator on the Qur’an

Tantawi's ability to talk about Islam and his scholarly influence are founded on the Islamic practice of tafsir, that is, commentary on the Qur’an. His current influence is seen in his close participation with the creation of the first online tafsir database.

Moderate Authority

Tantawi has secured his place as the bastion of Islamic moderation through a number of pragmatic legal rulings. He has been most influential as the moderate voice of the Islamic establishment. On thorny issues of the day, Tantawi has kept a cool head seeking judicious and restrained responses. On the issue of terrorism, Tantawi was quick to brand the perpetrators of terrorist acts as heretics, stating that it is not courageous 'to kill an innocent person, or to kill thousands of people, including men and women and children'. On other controversial issues such as apostasy, abortion in cases of rape, and female circumcision Tantawi has bucked popular trends and taken a liberal view.