(Ilahiyat Fakültesi)

Marmara University’s Faculty of Theology is the second oldest institution of higher religious education in Turkey. It was established in 1959, as the Istanbul Higher Islamic Institute by the Ministry of National Education. This institute was entrusted to the administration of Marmara University and became faculty of theology in 1982. It is located on the Anatolian site in the Üsküdar district.

Marmara University, Faculty of Theology follows the divinity program which was redesigned in 1998 in order to fit the educational needs of the teaching personnel at primary schools, high schools, including Imam Hatip Schools and the needs of the personnel employed by the Office of the Religious Affairs Department.

The Faculty of Theology offers three undergraduate programs:

I) The Divinity Undergraduate Program: It is the oldest and most populated program. It serves to students who are Turkish citizens and live in Turkey. The langauge of education is Turkish.

II) The International Divinity Program: Faculty of Theology accepts students coming outside the country to its international divinity program. Students who enroll in this program must have some affiliation with Turkey and Turkish people. They are either children of Turks living outside Turkey or citizens of East-European, Caucasian and Central Asian countries. This program serves to students of Turkish origin living in various European countries.

III) The Divinity Undergraduate Program in English: It is a newly established program in which language of education is English. It is designed to serve Turkish citizens who want to have divinity education in English as well as to international students who do not know Turkish.

All these three programs follow more or less the same curricula. The courses making up the curricula are offered by three departments divided into various major scientific areas.

  • Department of Basic Islamic Sciences. This department encourages research and offers courses in areas such as, Interpretation of the Qur’an (tafsir), the Prophetic Tradition (Hadith), Islamic Law (Fiqh) Islamic Theology (Kalam).
  • Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. This department encourages research and offers courses in areas such as History of Philosophy Islamic Philosophy Philosophy of Religion Sociology of Religion Psychology of Religion History of Religions.
  • Department of Islamic History and Islamic Arts: This department encourages research and offers courses on Islamic History, History of the Turkish Islamic Arts, Turkish Islamic Literature and Turkish Religious Music.

Postgraduate programs:

In Turkey, postgraduate education (master and Ph.D.) is pursued at institutes established within universities. Postgraduate education in the area of divinity is offered within the organization of Marmara University through the Institute of Social Sciences, in diverse areas grouped under the following headings:

  • Basic Islamic Sciences
  • Philosophy and Religious Studies
  • Islamic History and Islamic Arts.

Detailed information regarding the postgraduate education at the Marmara University, Divinity School can obtained from: http://www.sbe.marmara.edu.tr

For Marmara University, Faculty of Theology: visit the website (unfortunately only in Turkish): http://ilahiyat.marmara.edu.tr/?&dil=en&dil=tr