Adnan al-Wazzan

Adnan Mohammed al-Wazzan (1951–2024) was a Saudi academic who served as the president of Umm al-Qura University and was appointed as a member of the Shura Council and the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Adnan al-Wazzan was born and raised in Makkah al-Mukarramah, where he studied Sharia sciences under the guidance of prominent scholars. He chose an academic path in English language and literature at King Abdulaziz University, graduating in 1974. He continued his studies and obtained a Ph.D. in comparative literature (English, Arabic, French) from Edinburgh University in the United Kingdom in 1981. After ten years, he received a fellowship from the same university and became a professor of comparative English literature in the Department of English at Umm al-Qura University in Makkah al-Mukarramah.

Adnan al-Wazzan held various administrative and academic roles. He served as the Dean of University Studies for Women and the Director of the Research Center for Social Studies at the Research Institute of Umm al-Qura University in Makkah al-Mukarramah. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (currently the Ministry of Tourism), Deputy Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Dawah and Guidance (currently the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah, and Guidance), and a consultant to its minister. He was appointed as a member of the Shura Council from 2006 to 2008, and became the President of Umm al-Qura University from 2007 to 2009.

Al-Wazzan was a member of several literary and academic associations and societies, including the American Comparative Literature Association, the British Comparative Literature Association, the International Advisory Commission of the Markfield Institute for Higher Education in Islamic Studies at Bournemouth University, and the World Association for Literature and Languages in the United States.

Adnan al-Wazzan was a visiting professor of comparative literature at the University of Michigan in the United States and several universities and colleges in the Kingdom of Morocco. He also supervised several master's and Ph.D. theses at Saudi universities and participated in conferences and seminars in Saudi Arabia and abroad.

Adnan al-Wazzan was awarded the King Faisal Prize in Islamic Studies in 2012 in recognition of his efforts in his book "Encyclopedia of Human Rights in Islam and Their Attributes in Saudi Arabia," which spans eight volumes and covers various topics such as the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims, labor rights, women's and children's rights, and the position of Islamic law and its primacy in the field of human rights. He also published several works in both Arabic and English on topics in comparative literature and human rights studies.