Fayez al-Sarraj

فايز السراج

Libyan architect and politician, born at Tripoli in 1960. He chaired Libya's Presidential Council and headed the Government of National Accord from 2016 to 2021 under the Libyan Political Agreement, handing over power in March 2021 to the Government of National Unity.

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At a glance

Roles
Politician · Architect
Region
Maghreb
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review

Life in time

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Place in the story

    Unknown (unknown)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Early life and career

    He was born on 20 February 1960 in Tripoli. He comes from a wealthy family of Kouloughli descent that owned shops and large amounts of land; his father, Mostafa al-Sarraj, was a minister during the Libyan monarchy. He took a bachelor's degree in architecture and urban planning from Al Fateh University (now the University of Tripoli) in 1982 and an MBA in 1999. He began his career as an engineer in the projects administration of the Social Security Fund, worked as an engineering consultant on specialised project committees, and co-founded the Tripolis engineering consultancy office. During the Gaddafi era he was employed at the Housing Ministry, and in 2014 he briefly served as minister of housing and utilities in the Maiteeq cabinet. 1 2 3

    Government of National Accord

    After Libya's 2014 elections the country split between the General National Congress in Tripoli and the House of Representatives in Tobruk. Under the UN-brokered Libyan Political Agreement, signed on 17 December 2015, al-Sarraj was named chairman of a new Presidential Council and head of the Government of National Accord. He and the council arrived in Tripoli on 30 March 2016 and took over the prime ministerial offices; his authority remained disputed by the rival authorities in Tripoli and the east throughout his tenure, and fighting broke out between his loyalists and forces of the rival Ghawil government. He also held the defence portfolio from September 2018 to August 2020. 1

    In September 2020, after a month of protests in Tripoli, he announced that he would step down by the end of October, then rescinded the decision on 31 October 2020. Following the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, he transferred power on 15 March 2021 to the Government of National Unity under Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. 1

    Religion

    The sources used here state no religion and no school of thought for al-Sarraj personally. Wikidata records Islam in general, without a branch. His family's descent and his father's office under the monarchy are family background, not affiliation. The museum therefore records his faith as unknown. 3 1

    Sources

    • The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
    • Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.

    Sources

    1. Fayez al-Sarraj — English Wikipedia
    2. Fayez al-Sarraj — Arabic Wikipedia
    3. Fayez al-Sarraj — Wikidata Q21089561
    • Fayez al-Sarraj — Urdu Wikipedia
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Fayez al-Sarraj”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/fayez-al-sarraj/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-27.

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