Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayyeb was appointed Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar in March 2010 following the passing of Dr. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. Before that, he served as President of Al-Azhar University and earlier as Grand Mufti of Egypt. His scholarship and leadership position him as one of the foremost Sunni clerics globally.
Birth: 6 January 1946 (Age: 80)
Source of Influence: Administration of Religious Affairs
Influence: Highest scholarly authority for the majority of Sunni Muslims, runs the foremost and largest Sunni Islamic university
School of Thought: Sunni, Traditional Sunni
Status: Featured in current year
Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayyeb was appointed Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar in March 2010 following the passing of Dr. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. Before that, he served as President of Al-Azhar University and earlier as Grand Mufti of Egypt. His scholarship and leadership position him as one of the foremost Sunni clerics globally.
Leader of Al-Azhar University: Sheikh Al-Tayyeb leads the second-oldest university in the world, where teaching has continued without interruption since 975 CE. Al-Azhar represents the centre of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. It is a key institution that issues authoritative religious rulings and has provided extensive Islamic education to Egyptian and international students since its inception over a millennium ago. This history makes it a bastion of Sunni traditionalism. The university is considered one of the most prominent Islamic educational institutions and the foremost centre of Sunni Muslim scholarship worldwide.
Administers Al-Azhar Education Network: Al-Azhar is currently the largest university in the world, having risen from a group of three schools in the 1950s to its current state with 72 feeder schools, with close to 300,000 students studying there at any one time. Including schools that are part of Al-Azhar waqf initiatives, there are close to 2 million students. The graduates of Al-Azhar inspire great respect as religious leaders within the Muslim community, and it enjoys a powerful alumni organisation, which makes the head of Al-Azhar an extraordinarily powerful and influential person.
Scholarly Influence: His scholarly influence as a leading intellectual of Sunni Islam spans the globe. He has served as the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Aswan, and the theology faculty of the International Islamic University in Pakistan. He has also taught in universities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. This influence is disseminated popularly through his online presence, with over 20 million followers on social media.
Advocate of Traditional Islam: Sheikh Al-Tayyeb has emphasised his mission to promote traditional Islam since becoming Grand Sheikh. He has stressed the importance of teaching students about Islamic heritage—considering Al-Azhar graduates as ambassadors of Islam to the world. In an age where claimants to authoritative Islam seem to be on every corner, Sheikh Al-Tayyeb has both the institute and the personal skills to authentically claim to be a representative of traditional Islam—Islam as practised by the majority of Muslims throughout the ages. Sheikh Al-Tayyeb has defined the Sunni community (Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jama’ah) as those who follow Imam Abul-Hasan Al-Ash’ari and Imam Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi and the scholars of Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi’i jurisprudence, as well as the moderate scholars of the Hanbali school. He also included the Sufis following the way of Imam Al-Junayd.
Initiatives: His tenure has been marked by interfaith initiatives. In 2020 he co-established the International Day of Human Fraternity with Pope Francis. He visited the Vatican in 2022, fostering Christian-Muslim dialogue. He also encourages media coverage of injustice, education grants for African students, and supporting Al-Azhar’s branches abroad.
The Gaza Genocide: Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayeb has been a vocal critic of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza. In July 2025, Al-Azhar under his leadership issued a fierce condemnation of Israel’s genocide and starvation policy in Gaza. Al-Tayeb has actively advocated for humanitarian relief, pressing Arab and Muslim leaders to ensure aid delivery and end the bloodshed. He has rejected displacement schemes outright and, in 2025, called for unified Arab stances against forced expulsions.
“The tolerant teachings of Islam honored man, preserved women’s rights, criminalized extremism and racism, and established the values of mutual respect and coexistence among all human beings.”
Over 2 million Al-Azhar students in Egypt
970CE the year Al-Azhar University was founded.
