Field Marshal Abd Ar-Rahman M.Siwar Adh-Dhahab

Abdulrahman Al-Thahab received military education in Sudan, U.K., U.S.A., Egypt, and Jordan and served for more than 30 years in the Sudanese armed forces, and became a Chief Commander and a Minister of Defense in his country. At the height of a political turmoil that threatened to break down Sudan in 1985, he took control over the country for one year, during which he organized general elections and turned over power to a democratically elected government. From that time onward, he dedicated his time and energy to Islamic Da’wa and charity. His relentless pursuit of the welfare of Muslims soon established him as one of the most respected personalities in the Islamic and Arab worlds. As a Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Da’wa Organization in Khartoum, Abdulrahman Al-Thahab was credited for the glaring achievements of that organization, including the construction of hundreds of schools, charity clinics, childcare centers, orphanages, mosques, and wells in impoverished parts of the Islamic World.

Field Marshall Abdulrahman Al-Thahab was also the Deputy President of the World Council for Islamic Da’wa in Cairo, the International Islamic Organization in Kuwait, and Al-Quds International Organization, and a founding and an honorary member of several Islamic and international organizations that carried our relief operations in Bosnia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Palestine, and Somalia. He was also actively involved in reconciliatory efforts in Somalia and Southern Sudan and in an international peace delegation seeking to end war between Iraq and Iran.

In Sudan, Abdulrahman Al-Thahab also served as a Chairman of both the National Fund for Peace and the Board of Trustees of Kordofan University. He founded the East Nile University College and was one of the founders of Ahliyya University in Omdurman. He received an honorary doctorate from Kordofan University.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.