Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque Mohamed Tantawi died of a heart attack this morning in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Tantawi, 81, had arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday to participate in the King Faisal awards ceremony. He suffered a heart attack while at the King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh where he was going to take a flight back to Cairo.
Egyptian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mahmoud Awf said Tantawi was transported to the military hospital in Riyadh, but died before arrival. Awf added that it has not yet been decided where Tantawi will be buried.
The Grand Sheikh was born on 28 October 1928 in the village of Selim el-Sharqia in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Suhag. He studied the Quran in Alexandria and obtained a PhD in hadith and interpretation of the Quran in 1966. He worked as a professor at the Faculty of Usul Al-Din and then taught in Libya for four years.
Tantawi also worked for some time in Medina as dean of the Faculty of Higher Islamic Studies at the Islamic University. On 28 October 1986 he was appointed as the Grand Mufti of Egypt. He became the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar on appointment by President Hosni Mubarak in 1996.
Tantawi suffered from cardiac problems and had a coronary stent implanted in 2006. He also suffered from diabetes. Towards the end of 2008 he suffered more health problems and was admitted to hospital for ten days with neuritis.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
