CAIRO, (Reuters) – Egypt’s president has appointed Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb as the head of al-Azhar, Egypt’s most prestigious seat of Islamic learning, the state news agency said on Friday, nine days after the former head died in Saudi Arabia.

President Hosni Mubarak, 81, is in Germany, recovering from gall bladder surgery he had two weeks ago, and has handed presidential power to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.

Officials from Al-Azhar were not immediately available for comment.

Al-Azhar, which runs schools, universities and other educational institutions across Egypt and sends scholars to teach in countries across the Muslim world, receives most of its funding from the state.