Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Sephardic Jews who transformed his downtrodden community of immigrants from North Africa and Arab nations and their descendants into a powerful force in Israeli politics, has died.

JERUSALEM — Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who as the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party became a forceful figure in Israeli politics fighting for the interests of Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin, died here Monday. He was 93.

His death was announced by Avigdor Kaplan, the director of the Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, where the rabbi had been treated, and by Dr. Dan Gilon, his cardiologist. Later in the day, some 500,000 people crowded the route of the funeral procession, the police said.

Yosef, in his distinctive turban, gold-embroidered robe and dark glasses, embodied a particular blend of religion, tradition, populism and ethnicity. As the leader of a Sephardic council of Torah sages that founded Shas in the early 1980s, he harnessed the underdog sentiment of many non-European Israeli Jews, worked to restore their pride and turned them into a potent political force.

Shas became a major player in governing coalitions under Yosef’s leadership. Israeli leaders of all stripes made pilgrimages to his home in Jerusalem seeking his support.

As a Sephardic Torah scholar and arbiter of Halakha, or Jewish law, Yosef was often described by his followers as “the greatest of the generation. He wrote Talmudic commentaries and volumes of answers, known as responsa, to questions on religious law. In 1970, he was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for Torah literature.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Monday that “the Jewish people have lost one of the wisest men of this generation,” adding, “Rabbi Ovadia was a giant in Torah and Jewish law and a teacher for tens of thousands.”

President Shimon Peres of Israel said he was at the rabbi’s bedside hours before his death.

“When I pressed his hand, I felt I was touching history,” he said, “and when I kissed his head, it was as though I kissed the very greatness of Israel.”

Yosef is survived by his 10 remaining children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.