DealZone

A day after the body of a prominent Emerati sheikh killed in a glider crash was found in Morocco, speculation is swirling around who will be tapped to take over his job as chief of one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan ran the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a fund reported to have assets of between $500 billion and $700 billion. He was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 27th most powerful person in the world in 2009.

He was also the younger brother of Abu Dhabi ruler and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the man leading the charge to find a successor to head ADIA.

Created in 1976 to manage Abu Dhabi’s bountiful oil proceeds, ADIA has assets ranging from stakes in Citigroup to Britain’s Gatwick airport.

Here are some stories from around the Web on who may soon be in charge of managing those assets:

Interest is a murky business in Muslim finance, in which religious doctrine prohibits earning money from money loaned. And while bankers are largely upbeat about the deal being offered by Dubai to bail out Dubai World and its property unit Nakheel, relieved that they are getting anything at all, perhaps they will take some solace from the interest prohibition when they say a final goodbye to any interest they were due.

Dubai World is being recapitalized and Nakheel’s bonds are to be paid off – sans interest — with $9.5 billion of aid. The funds include about $4 billion from the government of Dubai and a previous loan of $5.7 billion from oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi. The plan is Dubai’s attempt to restructure some $26 billion in debt held by Dubai World, owner of the QE2 liner and Cirque du Soleil assets. Nakheel is the developer that conjured the emirate’s iconic global map made of islands.

Some investors were expecting Abu Dhabi to step in with more cash, but it is apparently done funding its neighbor’s excesses. Maybe next boom, they’ll be back.