Mahdi al-Sumayda'i
Grand Mufti of Iraq
Mahdi ibn Ahmad al-Sumayda'i (Arabic: مهدي بن أحمد الصميدعي, romanized: Mahdī ibn ʾAḥmad al-Ṣumaydaʿī; born 1 July 1955) is an Iraqi Islamic scholar and politician who is currently serving as the grand mufti of Sunnis in Iraq since 2014.
Al-Sumayda'i runs the Sunni Fatwa Council in Baghdad, at the Umm-al-Tubul mosque. Since 2014 he has been recognized by the government of Nuri al-Maliki as Grand Mufti of the Sunnis of Iraq, the highest Iraqi Sunni religious authority.
He played an important political role in the events of Iraq, in an attempt to involve part of Salafi Islam in the fight against the Islamic State, alongside the Shia forces. Despite this, he has close ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Career
Religious activities
During the American occupation of Iraq, Sumayda'i led an armed group, supporting the jihad against the occupation forces. In January 2004, he was arrested by American troops as he exited the mosque in Baghdad after a prayer. Later released, he played a mediating role between the government and Salafist resistance. Following the withdrawal of American troops in December 2011, Sumayda'i was co-opted by the government of Nuri al-Maliki to persuade Salafist Sunni preachers to participate in a unified legal council with the Shias. The attempt, during a conference on the Iraqi resistance in February 2012, was not successful, moreover, due to his support for the Shia government Sumayda'i suffered an attempted attack in August 2012.
“Mahdi al-Sumayda'i” enters the record as grand Mufti of Iraq. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mahdi, al-Sumayda'i and Grand can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q62292124. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 2014, 2004 and 2011.
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