Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia 's grand mufti who served the kingdom's top religious figure over a quarter century that saw the ultraconservative Muslim nation socially liberalize, died Tuesday. He was in his 80s.
Sheikh Abdulaziz's role as grand mufti put him as one of the top Islamic clerics in the world of Sunni Muslims. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, hosts the annual Hajj pilgrimage required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their lives, making the pronouncements of the grand mufti that much more closely followed.
