Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz (November 21, 1910 – May 13, 1999), was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar and a leading proponent of the Salafi form of Islam. He was the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999. According to French political scientist Gilles Kepel, Baz was a "figurehead for institutional Wahhabism" whose "immense religious erudition and his reputation for intransigence" gave him prestige among the population of Saudi Arabia and he "could reinforce the Saud family's policies through his influence with the masses of believers", and his death left the government without a comparable figure from within the Wahhabite clergy to "fill" his "shoes".