محمد سيد طنطاوىMuhammad Sayyid Tantawi -born 28 October 1928- is the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University. He has been described as "perhaps the foremost Sunni Arab authority", "acknowledged as the highest spiritual authority for nearly a billion Sunni Muslims", and "a supreme authority."
Tantawy joined the Alexandria Religious Institute in 1944, and became a member of the faculty of Ausol Aldeen in 1968. In 1972 he became a member of the faculty of Arabic & Islamic Studies at the Islamic University of Libya. In 1980 he moved to Saudi Arabia where he became chief of the Tafsir branch of the Postgraduate studies branch at the Islamic University of Madinah. He returned to Egypt in 1985 when he became Dean of the Faculty of Ausol Aldeen in the prestigious Alexandria Religious Institute.
In 1986 Tantawy was appointed as Grand Mufti of Egypt on his 58th birthday, 28 October 1986. He held this position for almost ten years, until he was appointed Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University by the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, on 27 March 1996. The Al-Azhar Mosque is one of the most influential and important Sunni Muslim institutions.
Tantawy completed a seven thousand page exegesis of the Qur'an (Al-tafser al-waset). This Tafsir took over ten years to complete. He has also written Bano Israel (Jacob's Son's) and Muamlat Al-bank ( Bank's Dealings ).
Tantawy led the funeral prayers at the funeral of Yasser Arafat in 2004, during which he said that "Arafat has done his duty as a defender of the Palestinian cause, with courage and honesty".