24
June 2024
About the ProgramÜsküdar University Institute for Sufi Studies, with the support of Sufi Corner and Kerim Foundation, will organize a training program entitled “Humanity, Sufi Thought, and Healing Lecture Series” between 10-14 July 2024. The program will be held face-to-face at Üsküdar University. The languages of the program are English and Turkish.Application Deadline: July 3, 2024It is a paid certificate program organised by the Institute of Sufi Studies.Participants will receive a program certificate from Üsküdar University.The program includes 20 lectures by 15 scholars.Participants will have the opportunity to meet the scholars in person and raise questions.The conferences will also be available online.All conferences will be simultaneously translated into Turkish and English.Video recordings of the conferences will be available to participants for 6 months. All those concerned can apply for the program at lectureseries@uskudar.edu.tr.Phone: 0090 216 4002222 - 2851Click HERE for the details.ApplicationApplication will be open on April 15th, 2024.1. Click here for the application form.2. Current resume (It should be a resume of no more than 300 words, including information such as age, education, occupation, language skills, interest in Sufism, etc.)*3. A copy of Turkish National ID and/or relevant pages of passport for applicants from abroad*4. A copy of the payment receipt*These documents are not required for current graduate students or graduates of Üsküdar University Institute for Sufi Studies.Those who wish to enroll in the program should fill out the application form and send their resume, along with a copy of the ID/passport and the payment receipt to the following address: lectureseries@uskudar.edu.tr.For all your questions and comments, you can contact the Institute of Sufi Studies via lectureseries@uskudar.edu.tr and/or by calling 0216 400 2222/2851.Program FeeA. Applications from TurkeyProgram Fee:For Üsküdar University students and/or graduates 6.800,00 TL (including VAT).For the other applicants 11.000,00 TL (including VAT).There are 4 or 6 month payments are available via Yapı Kredi, Garanti, World and Bonus credit cards.B. Application from AbroadProgram Fee: 600 $The fee for the participants who have previously received a certificate from at least one of the Institute of Sufi Studies International Summer School Programs is $500.Speakers:Gholamreza Aavani: Professor Aavani is an Iranian philosopher and emeritus professor of philosophy at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. He graduated with a BA in philosophy in 1964 from the American University in Beirut. He received a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Tehran in 1968 and acquired his PhD in 1976 from the same university under the supervision of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Aavani has the greatest influence on expediting the process of development and expansion of Iranian philosophy. He is also a steering committee member of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies and the first president of the International Association of Islamic Philosophy. He has also served as the Kenan Rifai Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at Beijing University, China.Omneya Ayad: Right after she earned her bachelor degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the American University in Cairo, she started pursuing a bachelor degree in Islamic studies in the Sufi Academy of Arabic and Islamic Studies – a college affiliated with Al Azhar University. After earning her Master’s degree on “The Contemporary Sufi Heritage of Shaykh Ahmed Ibn Mustafa al-‘Alawī and His Elements of the Sufi Path towards the Divine” from the American University in Cairo, she had pursued a doctoral degree in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK where she finished her doctoral thesis on “Ibn ‘Ajība (d. 1224/1809) and His Oceanic Exegesis of the Quran: Love in the Moroccan Sufi Tradition”. During her postgraduate studies she has worked as a teaching assistant of Islamic history while pursuing her Master’s degree in the American University in Cairo and during her doctoral studies she spent two years teaching the Arabic language in the University of Exeter.William C. Chittick: As an undergraduate student majoring in history at the College of Wooster (Ohio), Chittick spent the 1964–1965 academic year abroad, studying Islamic history at the American University of Beirut. Chittick began his graduate work in the foreign students program at the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Letters in 1966. In 1974, he obtained a doctoral degree in Persian language and literature under Nasr’s supervision. Chittick then began teaching comparative religion at Aryamehr Technical University (now Sharif University of Technology) and, in 1978, joined the faculty of the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy (now the Iranian Institute of Philosophy). Shortly before the revolution in 1979, he returned to the United States to continue his work in religious studies. In 2012, he worked as a visiting lecturer in Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies in Beijing for one year. During this year, he taught on fundamental principles of Islamic thought, and the views of great scholars like Avicenna, Ibn ‘Arabī and Jāmī. Chittick is author and translator of thirty books and more than one hundred seventy five articles on Islamic thought, Sufism, Shi’ism, and Persian literature. His books have been translated into many languages. William Chittick is known for his works on Ibn Arabī and Rūmī and currently works as a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University. He is interested in various research topics in the field of sufism and Islamic philosophy, and continues to give lectures on Islamic classics, Hinduism and other fields of religious studies. Carl W. Ernst: Carl W. Ernst was recognized for his work on the comparison of religions at Stanford University in 1973. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1981 and taught at Pomona College between 1981 and 1992. Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His published research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has been mainly devoted to the study of three areas: general and critical issues of Islamic studies, premodern and contemporary Sufism, and Indo-Muslim culture. In 2005, he was awarded the “DOST Award for Service to Islam” for his book named Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World, which was also translated to Turkish. In 2009, he founded the Ken’an Rifai Chair of Islamic Studies with the cooperation of TÜRKKAD on behalf of the Department of Religious Studies at the UNC at Chapel Hill. His studies of Sufism have engaged with the literary, histrorical, and contemporary aspects of Islamic mysticism, particularly in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent and the Persianate cultural sphere. He is the co-director of the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the co-editor of Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series of the University of the North Carolina Press.H. Dilek Güldütuna: Güldütuna graduated from Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. She completed her residency in Anesthesiology at the Koşuyolu Research Hospital. She spent three years at the Professor Fuat Sezgin’s Arab-Islamic History of Science Institute in Frankfurt to complete her Arabic education. Between 2005 and 2011, she first received her master’s degree at the Department of Islamic and Religious Sciences in Johann Wolfgang Goethe University with her thesis titled “Buchstabensymbolik bei Ibn Arabi” (Letter Symbolism in Ibn Arabi) and then her PhD at the Department of Islamic Studies on “Konstruktionen des weiblichen bei Ken'ân Rifâî: Das weibliche als Spiegel der göttlichen Wirklichkeit” (Women as a Miracle of Truth). She is currently giving lectures on Sufism at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Her main areas of interest are symbolism in general, symbolism in Ibn Arabi, the role of woman in Islamic mysticism and femininity and symbolism as symbols, the role of Islamic culture in the history of thought and science, and the effects in the West.Kenan Gürsoy: Kenan Gürsoy graduated from the University of Rennes and the University of Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV) in France. He started working as an assistant at Atatürk University, Faculty of Literature, Department of Philosophy. He received his PhD in 1979, became an Assistant Professor in 1982 and an Associate Professor of Systematic Philosophy-Logic in 1983. In the meantime, he was assigned to do research for another year (1981-1982) at the Department of Philosophy of Paris-Ouest-Nanterre-la-Défense (Paris X) in France. In November 1984, he joined the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Languages and History-Geography at Ankara University as an Associate Professor in the History of Philosophy Department, where he became a Professor in January 1989. He was a faculty member at Galatasaray University between 1997 and 2009, first at the Faculty of Communication, then at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and finally as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Galatasaray University from 2000 to 2009. Professor Gürsoy, who was the Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye to the Holy See (Vatican) between 2009 and 2014, served for a while on the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after his return to Turkey in 2014, and retired from the Embaccy in 2015. From 2015 to June 2017, he served as a faculty member and director of the Center for Western Studies at Istanbul Aydın University. Professor Gürsoy has been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cenan Foundation since 2013. His works are mainly on ethics.Mahmud Erol Kılıç: Mahmud Erol Kılıç was born in 1961 in Istanbul. Following his graduation from the Faculty of Political Science of Istanbul University (1985), he obtained his masters’ degree in Islamic Philosophy at Marmara University (1989), then defended his doctorate on Ibn Arabi’s thought (1995). He was the President of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul (2005-2008) and was then appointed as the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC, Tehran) from 2008 to 2018. Following this, he was appointed as the Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye to the Republic of Indonesia (2019-2021). He is currently the Director General of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), the cultural subsidiary of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Ambassador Prof. Kılıç is married and has two children and one grandchild.Sachiko Murata: Sachiko Murata completed her BA in family law at Chiba University in Japan, worked for a year in a law firm in Tokyo, and then went to Iran to study Islamic law. She completed a PhD in Persian literature at Tehran University in 1971, and then transferred to the faculty of theology, where she was the first woman and the first non-Muslim to be enrolled. She finished her MA in Islamic jurisprudence in 1975, and while continuing work on her PhD dissertation in law she became a research associate at the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy. Her work on her second PhD was cut short by the revolution. In 1979, she moved to the US with her husband William C. Chittick. Since 1983 she has taught religious studies at Stony Brook. Since 2012, she has been giving lectures on the fundamental principles of Islamic thought and “Muslim Confucians” at the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies in Beijing, which was founded by TURKKAD. During this course, she taught a text, which she penned with William Chittick and Tu Weiming, about the great Chinese scholar, Huiru, a member of the Akbarian school.Reşat Öngören: Professor Öngören graduated from Marmara University Department of Theology. He earned his master’s degree in the field of History of Tasawwuf in 1990, and he received his PhD in 1996. He worked as a researcher, specifically on the field of Tasawwuf, between 1996 to 2000 in the Turkiye Diyanet Foundation for Islamic Studies (ISAM). He was assigned as Assistant Professor to Istanbul University Department of Theology. He was assigned to Associate Professor in November 2001 and Professor in November 2007. He worked as a guest lecturer in Higher Islamic Institute in Sofia, during 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 academic calenders. Among many academic articles, papers, and book chapters he wrote on Tasawwuf, he also the author of the books Tasawwuf in Ottomans: Sufis, State and Scholars in Anatolia (printed in 2000, 2003, 2012, 2016), Zayniyyah: A Sufi Order in the History (printed in 2003), and A Popular Tariqa Among Scholars: Zayniyyah (printed in 2012). He also wrote articles for the Encyclopedia of Islam (DIA) published by ISAM and the encyclopedia of Mevsūatu a‘lāmi’l-ulemāi ve’l-udebāi’l-‘Arabi ve’l-müslimīn published in Tunisia. He is currently working as a lecturer at the Institute of Sufi Studies in Uskudar University.Mohammed Rustom: Mohammed Rustom is Professor of Islamic Thought and Global Philosophy at Carleton University and Director of the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam. An internationally recognized scholar whose works have been translated into over ten languages, Professor Rustom’s research focuses on Islamic philosophy, Sufism, Quranic exegesis, and cross-cultural philosophy. He is the author, translator, and editor of thirteen books, the most recent of which are Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of ‘Ayn al-Qudat (SUNY Press, 2023) and A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy (Equinox, 2025). Professor Rustom is also Editor of Equinox Publishing’s Global Philosophy series and Editorial Board member of the Library of Arabic Literature (NYU Press).Cemalnur Sargut: After receiving her BSc in Chemical Engineering, she taught Chemistry for 20 years. Born into a sufi family, she was interested in philosophy and examined the lives of great philosophers when she was young. After realizing that philosophy is not a kind of knowledge that can be lived, she looked for an example who lived his knowledge and found Rumi. Upon her teacher, Samiha Ayverdi’s request, she started to work on the Quran and conduct a comparative study on Rumi’s Masnavi. Again on her teacher’s request she started giving Masnavi lessons to young people when she was 24, and since then she has reached millions of people. Since 2000, Cemalnur Sargut has been the President of Turkish Women’s Cultural Association, Istanbul (TURKKAD),(www.turkkad.org) founded by her teacher, Samiha Ayverdi in 1966. Under her leadership and with the belief that tasavvuf (sufism) can be the common language of humans and societies, TURKKAD has been organizing international symposiums addressing a wide range of people with a view to offering solutions to today’s problems through tasavvuf, which considers knowledge as a state to be practiced and sees worship as a journey towards love.Yasushi Tonaga: Yasushi Tonaga is a professor at the Institute of Asian and African Field Studies, in Kyoto University. He is also the current director of the Kenan Rifâî Centre for Sufi Studies and the Centre for Islamic Studies at Kyoto University. He graduated from the University of Tokyo, and received his doctorate from Kyoto University. His major field of interest includes Ibn ‘Arabī and Akbarian school. He is also the president of the Japan Association for Middle Eastern Studies.Emine Yeniterzi: Emine Yeniterzi graduated from the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Selçuk University Faculty of Letters in 1981. She received her master’s degree with her thesis, “The Names of Prophet Muhammad in Classical Turkish Literature” in 1983 and PhD degree with the thesis of “Praising Poetry of the Prophet Muhammad [Na’t] in Divan Poetry” in 1989, both in the field of Classical Turkish Literature. She continued her academic life at Selçuk University between 1981-2011, and Istanbul Medeniyet University between 2011-2015. Currently she works at the Institute for Sufi Studies of Üsküdar University. Her major areas of study are: Classical Turkish poetry, text commentary, religious-moral-mystical masnavis, various types of religious poetry and Jalâl al-Dîn Rûmî. She is the author of nine books andmany articles published in scholarly journals.Arzu Eylül Yalçınkaya: Arzu Eylül Yalçınkaya is a faculty member at the Institute for Sufi Studies at Üsküdar University. Her research explores Sufism’s intersections with modernity and secularism, focusing on late Ottoman-era Sufi movements. Yalçınkaya completed her MA thesis on the Mathnawī discourses of Ken‘ān Rifāī (d. 1950) and then undertook three years of graduate courses in religion at Harvard Extension School. Her PhD thesis, examining the life, works, and Sufi thought of Ken‘ān Rifāī, was published as a monograph (2020). Currently, she is a visiting researcher at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, conducting postdoctoral research on the “Bridging Role of the Sufi Intellectuals Between the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Republican Turkey.” Her recent work on 19th-century Sufi soundscapes has led to events on Sufi music and poetry at Harvard Divinity School, the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and other related venues. Her forthcoming article, “In Pursuit of Truth: Djalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s Perception of Happiness within the Mathnawī-i Ma‘nawī,” and her book on Ahmed er-Rifai’s (d. 1182) monography are in publication.Cangüzel Güner Zülfikar: Cangüzel Güner Zülfikar graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Literature, History and Geography Department of History. She completed her PhD studies on the “Aziz Mahmud Hudayi’s [ca. 1543-1628] Shrine Complex: Sufi Impact in the Civil Society Organizations in Ottoman Religious, Socio-Cultural History” at the Department of History of Hacettepe University. She gave courses on Tasawwuf and Islamic civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. She was the Associate Director (2006-2010) of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at UNC-Chapel Hill. She established the Turkish Studies Program at UNC-CH in 2009, and served as an instructor there until December 2013. At present, she teaches at the Institute for Sufi Studies in Uskudar University.
14
June 2024
Sâmiha Ayverdi and What Reflects on Today ProgramOn the occasion of International Women's Day, in cooperation with Üsküdar University Institute for Sufi Studies, Kerim Foundation and TURKKAD, on Sunday, March 10, 2024, between 10.00-15.00 hours, within the scope of the program "Sâmiha Ayverdi and What Reflects on Today", two panels and a concert by Istanbul Turkish Quarry Ömürlü Music Ensemble followed by Elif Ömürlü Uyar will be held.It will be held face-to-face and open to the public at Üsküdar University Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall.The program will also be broadcast on Üsküdar University television and youtube channel.Live broadcast link: https://tv.uskudar.edu.tr/canli-yayin Program Flow10.00-10.30 Opening SpeechesProf. Dr. Emine YeniterziU.U. Institute of Sufi Studies Head of the Department of Sufi Culture and LiteratureU.U. Institute of Sufi Studies Deputy DirectorEmine BağlıTÜRKKAD PresidentCemalnur SargutU.U. Advisor to the RectorFounder of Kerim FoundationSession 110.30-11.40 Session Chair: Prof. Dr. Lecturer. Prof. Dr. Cangüzel Güner ZülfikarDeputy Director and Faculty Member of the Institute of Sufi StudiesŞehvar Tükek Second Birth and Spiritual Resurrection in Sâmiha AyverdiDeniz Yağlı Sâmiha Ayverdi's Human and Satan Novel: The Role of Satan in Human EvolutionSerkan İçtem Sâmiha Ayverdi and Cemîl İnsan10 minutes question and answer20 minutes breakSession 212.00-13.10 Session Chair: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeyneb Çağlıyan İçenerIstanbul Commerce University Faculty of Humanities and Social SciencesFiliz Kavaklı Sâmiha Ayverdi's Creative FreedomElif Titrek The Principle of I'lâ-yı Kelimetullah: Remembering the Forgotten, Seeking the Lost10 minutes question and answer20 minutes breakConcertIstanbul Turkic Quarry Lifelong Music EnsembleZekâi Dede's Sûzidil Mevlevî ÂyîDirected by: Elif Ömürlü UyarResumesŞehvar Tükek, Second Birth and Spiritual Resurrection in Sâmiha AyverdiŞehvar Tükek graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of English Language and Literature and completed her Master's program in Sufi Culture and Literature at Üsküdar University with her thesis titled "The Concept of Motherhood in Sufism: Letters to Sâmiha Ayverdi and Vehbi Güneri". She is currently a PhD student at Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies, Department of Islamic Civilization, Thought, History and Literature. Şehvar Tükek is the Secretary General of Kerim Education, Culture and Health Foundation and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Istanbul Branch of the Turkish Women's Cultural Association.Deniz Yağlı Sâmiha Ayverdi's Human and Satan Novel: The Role of Satan in Human EvolutionDeniz Yağlı, a graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Communication, completed her master's degree at Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies with her thesis titled "Human-Satan Relationship in Sâmiha Ayverdi's Human and Satan". She is a student in the Institute's PhD program in Islamic Civilization, Thought, History and Literature.Serkan İçtem, Sâmiha Ayverdi and Cemîl İnsanAfter graduating from Istanbul University Faculty of Law, Serkan İçtem started his career as a lawyer and completed his master's degree in law at New York University. In 2023, he graduated from Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies with his thesis titled "The Concept of Cemâl in Sufi Thought and Sâmiha Ayverdi's Understanding of Cemâl". She continues her business life as a lawyer in the law firm she co-founded.Filiz Kavaklı, Sâmiha Ayverdi's Creative FreedomFiliz Kavaklı graduated from Gazi University, Department of Business Administration. She did her first master's degree in Italy on "Banking and Entrepreneurship in New European Countries". She is a manager in a private bank. She completed her master's thesis titled "The Concept of Human Freedom in Sâmiha Ayverdi's novel Human and Satan from a Sufi Perspective" at Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies, and now she continues her studies as a doctoral student in the Islamic Civilization, Thought, History and Literature program at the Institute.Elif Trembling The Principle of I'lâ-yı kelimetullah: Remembering the Forgotten, Seeking the LostBorn in Bursa, Elif Titrek graduated from Uludağ University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology. She completed her master's degree in the Department of Sufi Culture and Literature at Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies with her thesis titled "The Concept of I'lâ-yı Kelimetullah in Sâmiha Ayverdi's Slavery to Efendiliğe".She is a doctoral student at Üsküdar University Institute of Sufi Studies, Islamic Civilization, Thought, History and Literature program. She works as an English teacher at a private school in Bursa.
