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
Country: Egypt
Influence: Highest scholarly authority for the majority of Sunni Muslims, runs the foremost and largest Sunni Islamic university
School of Thought: 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.
Institutional Leadership of Al-Azhar: 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.
Global Influence and High Recognitions: In May 2026, Al-Tayyeb was named "Person of the Year 2026" at the 11th International Conference of the Arab Impact Factor hosted by Al-Azhar University. The award recognized his lifelong intellectual and humanitarian work, alongside his global efforts to propagate enlightened, moderate Islamic thought. Marking his 80th birthday in 2026, the Muslim Council of Elders launched a global commemorative compilation book titled In the Presence of Al-Tayeb.
Clarifying and Advocating Traditional Islam: Sheikh Al-Tayyeb has rigorously pursued his mission to promote traditional Islam since becoming Grand Sheikh. He has explicitly 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, the scholars of Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi’i jurisprudence, the moderate scholars of the Hanbali school, and the Sufis following the spiritual methodology of Imam Al-Junayd. In February 2026, he further solidified this traditional equity by presiding over a landmark Council of Senior Scholars conference that outlined a comprehensive structural code on women’s legal rights and modern protections under Shariah law.
Ethical Stances on AI Development: In June, 2026, Al-Azhar University hosted the inaugural high-level roundtable of the United Nations Artificial Intelligence Initiative, officially launching the global program with a core focus on utilizing AI to advance human and sustainable development. Speaking at the launch, Grand Imam Al-Tayyeb issued a profound warning to the international tech community, asserting that developing artificial intelligence without strict ethical safeguards will cause a severe erosion of human values and consolidate total control over humanity’s future in the hands of a powerful few.
Interfaith and Christian-Muslim Relations: His tenure has been heavily marked by global interfaith initiatives. In 2020, he co-established the International Day of Human Fraternity with Pope Francis, which Al-Azhar formally commemorated with widespread high-level diplomacy in February 2026. Domestically and regionally, he continued to actively strengthen Christian-Muslim fraternity in 2026 through close institutional engagement with Pope Tawadros II. This ongoing collaboration reinforced the historic societal cooperation between Al-Azhar and Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, modeling peaceful coexistence at a time of heightened regional friction.
Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Genocide: Al-Tayyeb has actively advocated for humanitarian relief, repeatedly pressing Arab and Muslim leaders to leverage their collective economic and diplomatic weight to ensure aid delivery and end the bloodshed. He has explicitly rejected all forced demographic displacement schemes, calling for a unified, legally binding regional stance to protect Palestinian sovereignty and prevent forced expulsions.
"True peace between nations can only be built upon mutual respect, justice, and the recognition of human fraternity across all faiths."
500k students globally educated at Al-Azhar
970CE the year Al‑Azhar University was founded
