Safwat el-Sherif, the Chairman of the Shura Council (Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament), Monday visited the newly appointed Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayyeb, to congratulate him on his new post. On March 19, President Hosni Mubarak appointed el-Tayyeb to head Al-Azhar, which is the Muslim world's most influential seat of learning. He succeeds Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, who died in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.