Uploaded September 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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A BIAA Online Lecture by Ceren Lord (University of Oxford) with Discussant: Umut Azak (Istanbul Okan University)

This lecture will examine the evolution of the role of the Turkish ulema (Muslim clerics), housed within the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, Diyanet). Established in 1924, the Diyanet is the country’s chief Islamic authority with a monopoly on overseeing Muslim religious life. Within Turkish studies, the Diyanet has been largely viewed as an apparatus of the ostensibly ‘secular Kemalist’ state, and more recently, as an ideological tool of the AKP. Broader studies of Islamic authority have also overlooked the Diyanet, regarding it as marginal and passive. In contrast, this lecture will trace lines of continuity between the Ottoman ulama and the Diyanet, underlining its agency in struggling for the expansion of its role and in pursuing Islamisation.

Find out more on our website: biaa.ac.uk/event/re-thinking-the-role-of-turkey-s-ulema-the-diyanet-from-the-1920s-to-the-2000s