Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti — the kingdom’s top religious authority, who once held wide sway in the country — died on Tuesday at the age of 82. Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Asheikh was the third cleric to hold the position since the country’s founding, serving three kings during an era of major cultural and political transformation in Saudi Arabia and the region. A leading scholar of one of the most conservative interpretations of Islam, Sheikh Abdulaziz opposed women driving and gender mixing, and described chess as the “work of Satan,” according to The New York Times.
With the ascent of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a decade ago and the implementation of reforms that have transformed Saudi society and culture, the mufti’s power waned. He did not oppose the ruler’s decisions, nor did he speak out against the crackdown on clerics who resisted the changes. In 2015, he denounced ISIS and other Islamist militants — many of whom followed a similar strain of Islam to its most extreme conclusions — as criminals who aimed to make “Islam a religion of bloodshed.”
Funeral prayers were held across the kingdom, with the crown prince himself leading prayers in Riyadh.