Aziz Alghashian died on October 18, 2026, “but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to” has gone through my head repeatedly since I learned of his sudden death. We met six years earlier and became fast friends, exchanging notes and talking on Zoom for hours. He was a Saudi patriot, who brought an extraordinary focus, sophistication, and nuance to the arguments that he presented during those discussions and afterwards about the culture, foreign policy, and history of Saudi Arabia and the world. His arguments reflected his elite academic training and his distinguished family’s many accomplishments: His father is a graduate of Al-Azhar University and worked at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC; his grandfather was a close confidant of and fought alongside King Faisal; and a mosque in Riyadh bears his grandmother’s name. He was a dynamic public speaker, able to win over audiences as different as scholars at elite conferences and college students in Tennessee. Yet Aziz was a pious Muslim, humble, and generous with his praise of others. Moreover, he was comfortable in contrasting social settings, from a shawarma shop in Riyadh to the world’s elite universities and European cities to the rural American south. Indeed, he proudly boasted of his support of teams as different as Al-Hilal, FC Barcelona, and the Dallas Cowboys. And he had a wicked sense of humor and could mimic anyone flawlessly, no matter where they called home. He was, in the words of his friend Eyad Alrefai, “an institution moving around in a human body.” “It was his mission,” he continued, to “bridge seemingly impossible divisions, to bring people together.” Yet Aziz was most at ease at his family farm outside of Riyadh, which boasts an elite stock of camels and horses. “The camels,” he liked to tell me whenever I had been away from the farm, “miss you and want to see you soon.”  

The first unconfirmed report of Aziz’s death was met with disbelief within the AGSI team, each one of us reaching out to him by text and phone, whispering a prayer that it wasn’t true. Aziz was so irrepressible, it was impossible to believe that he was gone. He came into our lives from different paths but with the same impression: respect for his intelligence and daring and utterly charmed by his personal warmth and humor. 

Aziz had a long and fruitful association with our institute. From his first participation in a joint workshop with Haifa University in September 2021 until his private roundtable with AGSI on Saudi-Israel relations here in Washington only weeks before his passing, he brought perspective, precision, and authenticity. Our team was working with him on his eagerly anticipated book on Saudi foreign policy and Israel. 

It is hard not to view Aziz’s impressive body of work as an embodiment of his personality. His openness and generosity formed a bridge to people across the region and overseas, albeit firmly grounded in Saudi soil. He was also brave. Honest and independent analysis amid conflict is difficult to maintain and desperately needed. His loss is deeply felt, by the family and friends who shaped him but also among the countless colleagues he touched with his insights and his friendship.