Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, passed away on March 10, of a heart attack. Sheikh Tantawi breathed his last during a visit to Saudi Arabia to attend the annual King Faisal awards ceremony, reported Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA).
The Egyptian TV said Sheikh Tantawi, 81, suffered severe pain while boarding a plane and fell on the stairs. He was rushed to the Amir Sultan hospital in Riyadh where doctors proclaimed him dead of a sudden heart attack.
However, the Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV channel quoted Amr, Sheikh Tantawi's eldest son, as saying that family wanted him to be buried in Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appointed Tantawi, then the Grand Mufti, as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the school established in 359 Hijri corresponding to 971 AD. Al-Azhar first admitted women students in 1961, albeit in separate classes. Also in 1961, subjects in engineering and medicine were added to classes on Shari`ah, the Qur'an and the intricacies of Arabic language.
Reference By: http://islamicvoice.com
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