Riyadh- Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Asheikh, Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti and one of its most influential religious figures for more than two decades, has died, the Saudi royal court announced on Tuesday. He was believed to be in his early to mid-80s.

Appointed in 1999, Sheikh Abdulaziz served as the kingdom’s top religious authority and head of the Council of Senior Scholars, the official body tasked with issuing religious edicts, or fatwas. His death marks the end of an era in which the clerical establishment played a central role in shaping Saudi religious and social life, even as its influence waned under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sweeping reforms.

The royal court described his death as “a loss for the Kingdom and the wider Islamic world,” praising his decades of service to Islam. Cr

See Full Page