142,918 views
Who is Prof. Dr. Ömer Faruk Harman? He was born in Söğüt, Bilecik (1950). He graduated from Istanbul Imam-Hatip School (1968) and Pertevniyal High School (1969), then Istanbul High Institute of Islam (1972) and Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Sociology (1973). He became a faculty member at Istanbul High Institute of Islam with his presentation thesis titled “Şheristani and el-Milel ve'n-Nihal from the Perspective of History of Religions” (1977). After the institute became Marmara University Faculty of Theology in 1982, he received his doctorate with the thesis of the same name (advisor: Prof. Dr. Hikmet Tanyu) (1983). He became an associate professor at the same faculty in 1988, and a professor in 1994. He worked as a librarian at the Istanbul Advanced Islamic Institute for a while (1974-1977). He first joined the academic staff as an assistant in the history of religions at this institute, and then worked as a faculty member at the Marmara University Faculty of Theology for many years until he retired (1977-2017). Between 2005-2009, he served as Consultant for Religious Services at the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Paris. Since 2017, he worked as a faculty member in the history of religions at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences at Ibn Haldun University. He passed away on March 4, 2021 in Istanbul and was buried in Ümraniye Kocatepe Cemetery. He made significant contributions to the studies of the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam since its establishment (1981-1982); he was a member of the Advisory Board (1999-2000), the Board of Directors (2003-2006) and the Encyclopedia Review Board (2003-2006). As an author-editor and head of the History of Religions Scientific Board, he personally served in the encyclopedia kitchen; he wrote 92 articles or sections of articles, and did the scientific editing of many articles. For these services, he was deemed worthy of the service award within the scope of the "Century of Islamic Cultural Service Honor and Service Awards" of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (2014). While his scientific and academic studies focused on the history of religions, especially Judaism and the Bible, he also wrote numerous copyrighted and translated works, book chapters and articles in different areas of Islamic sciences. “The Jewish Holy Books in Terms of Textual Content and Source” (unpublished associate professorship thesis, 1988), “The Gospel of Barnabas in Terms of Textual Content and Source” (unpublished professorship thesis, 1994), Missionary Activities in Turkey (ed. Ö. Faruk Harman, İstanbul 2004), “L'administration des cultes en Turquie” (L'administration des cultes dans les pays de l'Union Europeenne, ed. B. Basdevant-Gaudemet, Leuven 2008, pp. 197-205), “The Emergence of the History of Religions as a Discipline (East-West)” (History of Religions in Turkey: Yesterday, Today, Future, Ankara 2010, pp. 23-48) and The Mysterious History of Jerusalem (Istanbul 2016) are some of them. He also took part in the committee that prepared the works titled Ilmihal I: Faith and Worship (Istanbul 1998, 2017) and Ilmihal II: Islam and Society (Istanbul 1999, 2017) published by the Islamic Research Center of the Turkish Religious Foundation (İSAM). Update Date: 05.03.2021