Vice President of Religious Affairs

Prof. Dr. İbrahim Hilmi Karslı was born in 1961 in Güneysu, Rize. Before primary school, he memorized the Holy Qur'an between 1971 and 1973. He took his first Arabic grammar lessons (amsilah, bina, awamil, izhar) from his grandfather, a respected village imam. He started his high school education at Rize Imam-Khatib High School in 1976 and completed it at Istanbul Imam-Kahtib High School in 1982. During his high school years, he took Tashih-al Huruf, Arabic, Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh courses in Istanbul. He started his higher education at Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine in 1983, but due to his intense interest in religious sciences, he left this faculty and completed his higher education at Ankara University Faculty of Theology (1984-1988). He graduated from the Ministry of National Education School of Foreign Languages (English) in 1991-1992 and Tunis Bourguiba Language Institute (Arabic) in 1993. He completed his master's degree in 1994 at Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences and his doctorate in 2000 at Atatürk University, Institute of Social Sciences. He became an Associate Professor in 2006 and a Professor in 2012.

Prof. Dr. İbrahim Hilmi Karslı, after his duties as muadhdhin-qayyim and preacher in the Presidency of Religious Affairs between 1987-1993, he started to work as a research assistant and lecturer at the Faculty of Theology of Karadeniz Technical University (Rize) and continued his academic career at the same university (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University), which changed its name (1994-2015). During this period, he also served as the Head of the Department of Basic Islamic Sciences at the same faculty between 2007-2008. Then, in 2015, he moved to Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Islamic Sciences.

He served as a member of the High Council of Religious Affairs of the Presidency of Religious Affairs for two terms between 2008-2020. During this duty, he served as the Chairman of the Commission on Religious Publications, Chairman of the Commission for the Review of Qur'anic Translations, and Member and Editor of the Scientific Board of the Konulu Tefsir Project. Karslı was appointed as the Vice President of Religious Affairs on July 10, 2020. Karslı is the father of 3 children.

Some of Prof. Dr. İbrahim Hilmi Karslı's thesis studies and books are as follows;

• Hatip Şirbinî ve Tefsirdeki Metodu (undergraduate thesis, 1988),
• Kur’an’a Göre Şeytan ve İnsanla Olan İlişkisi (master’s thesis, 1994),
• Kur’an Tefsirinde Sosyo-Kültürel Çevrenin Rolü ve Bu Bağlamda Türkiye Örneğinde Kadın (doctoral thesis, 2000),
• Kur’an Yorumlarında Kadın (2003), Kutsal Kitaplara Göre Din Adamı (2010),
• Kur’an’ı Anlamaya Giriş (2012),
• Vahyin Aydınlığında Yürümek (2015) ,
• Bir Arada Yaşama Ahlâkı (2019).

Some of his articles and papers are listed below:

• Çeviri Kuramları Açısından Hamdi Yazır’ın Meal Yöntemi (2005),
• Dini Tecrübenin Kur’an’ı Anlama ve Yorumlamadaki Rolü (2005),
• Kur’an’ın Güzellik Fenomenine Yaklaşımı (2005),
• Tarihsel Gelişimleri İtibariyle Tefsir Mukaddimelerine Dair Bir İnceleme (2003),
• Tefsirin Sosyolojik Boyutu ve Sosyolojik Okunması (2005),
• Kur’an’da Yahudi Din Adamlığı (Yahudi Geleneği ile Mukayeseli Bir Çalışma) (2010),
• Hz. Peygamberde Nübüvvet Sorumluluğuna Psikolojik Bir Yaklaşım (2010),
• İnsan Onuru Kavramının Kur’anî Dayanakları (Yaratılış Ayetleri) (2013).