Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (also referred to as Tantawi)
(28 October 1928 – 10 March 2010) was an influential Islamic scholar in Egypt. From 1986 to 1996, he was the grand Mufti of Egypt. In 1996, president Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak

Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

 appointed him as the Grand Imam

Imam

An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...

 of al-Azhar Mosque

Al-Azhar Mosque

Al-Azhar Mosque is a mosque in Islamic Cairo in Egypt. Al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh of the Fatimid Caliphate commissioned its construction for the newly established capital city in 970. Its name is usually thought to allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, a revered figure in Islam...

 and Grand Sheikh

Sheikh

Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...

 of al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...

, a position he retained until his death in 2010.
Tantawy born in village of Selim ash-Sharqiyah in the municipality of Tama, Sohag, before joining the Alexandria Religious Institute in 1944.