THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

7HIS EMINENCE PROFESSOR DR SHEIKH AHMADMUHAMMAD AL TAYEBGrand Sheikh of the Al Azhar University,Grand Imam of the Al Azhar MosqueSheikh Ahmad Muhammad al Tayeb was appointed asGrand Sheikh of Al Azhar in March 2010, after the passingof his predecessor, Dr Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi.He was formerly the president of the Al Azhar for sevenyears and prior to that, served for two years as the secondmost powerful cleric in Egypt as its Grand Mufti.Al Tayeb’s scholarly influence as a leading intellectualof Sunni Islam spans the globe. He has served as thedean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Aswan, and thetheology faculty of the International Islamic Universityin Pakistan. He has also taught in universities in SaudiArabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Sheikhal Tayeb holds a PhD in Islamic philosophy from SorbonneUniversity.Country: EgyptDate of Birth: 1946Source of Influence: AdministrativeInfluence: Highest scholarlyauthority for a majority ofSunni Muslims, runs the foremostSunni Islamic universitywith close to 400,000 studentsSchool of Thought: TraditionalSunniRank: 2010:7 · 2009:25 Advocate of Traditional IslamAl Tayeb has emphasised his mission to promote traditional Islam since becoming GrandSheikh. He has since issued decisions to teach all four schools of traditional Islamic thoughtat Al Azhar University, while stressing the importance of teaching students about Islamicheritage—considering Al Azhar graduates as ambassadors of Islam to the world.Spiritual Leader of the Al Azhar UniversitySheikh al Tayeb leads the second-oldest university in the world, where teaching has continuedwithout interruption since 975 CE. Al Azhar represents the center of Sunni Islamicjurisprudence. It is a key institution that issues authoritative religious rulings and has providedextensive Islamic education to Egyptian and international students since its inceptionover a millennium ago. This history makes Al Azhar a bastion of Sunni traditionalism. Theuniversity is considered one of the most prominent Islamic educational institutions, and theforemost center of Sunni Muslim scholarship in the world.Administers the Al Azhar Education NetworkAl Azhar is the second oldest, and currently the largest, university in the world, having risenfrom a group of three schools in the 1950s to its current state with 72 feeder schools, and closeto 400,000 students studying there at any one time. Including schools that are part of AlAzhar waqf initiatives there are close to 2 million students. This immense size and groundedrespect make the head of Al Azhar an extraordinarily powerful and academically influentialperson. In spite of his huge workload as president, and now as Grand Sheikh, al Tayeb publishesregularly in numerous academic journals, dealing particularly with the reception ofIslamic culture and philosophy in the Western world.Al Tayeb is also a member of the Egyptian Society of Philosophy, the Supreme Court of IslamicAffairs and is the head of the Religious Committee at the Egyptian Radio and TelevisionUnion.40