Prof. Dr. Mahmud Erol Kilic was born in Istanbul, Turkey and
studied in Istanbul University, at the Faculty of Political
Sciences. When he was a university student he won a scholarship for
a summer school of youth seminar for world religions. He traveled
eight different countries together with 120 university students
from all over the world in order to study different religions at
their centers. This was a great opportunity for him to experience
the universal values of the religion.
He started his post-graduate studies at the Department of
Islamic Philosophy at Marmara University as well as he became an
assistant of that department. He prepared his M.A. thesis of
"Hermes and Hermetic Sciences According to Muslim Thinkers". Then
he completed his PhD on "Being and its Degrees According to Ibn
'Arabi".
When "Departments of Tasawwuf" were established as independent
academic departments in Turkish Universities in 1996 he became
Associate Professor of Tasawwuf. Later on he became full time
Professor of Tasawwuf (2004). He has been teaching Sufi Thought in
general and Ottoman Sufism in particular as well as attending
worldwide conferences on Sufism and Inter-religious dialogues.
Professor Kiliç's recent book Sufi ve Siir (Istanbul, 2004)
(Sufi and Poetry: Poetics of Ottoman Sufi Poetry) was awarded the
book of the year by TYB (Association of Turkish Writers).
Also he was the President of the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum
in Istanbul (2004 - 2008). Honorary Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn
Arabi Society in Oxford as well as Chairman of the Islamic
Manuscript Association, Cambridge.
On 2008 he was elected by 51 countries as Secretary General of
Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States (PUIC).
