Yusuf Ziya Kavakçı (born 22 June 1938) is a Turkish American Islamic cleric and the father of Turkish politician

Merve Kavakçı Merve is a feminine Turkish name, Turkish given name of Arabic origin. It originates from the Arabic female name Marwa (name), Marwa. It has two meanings: # Pebble # One of the two sacred hills in Mecca, Saudi Arabia between which Muslims travel bac ...

. He was very influential in establishing Islamic institutions of learning in North Texas.

Life

Early life

Imam Yusuf was born in 1938 in Sakarya, Hendek to a family that emigrated from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He grew up not speaking much of Turkish, and speaking Georgian, although he learned to speak Turkish when he was 8 to 9. At a young age, he was trained in the Islamic sciences, having

memorized Memorization (British English: memorisation) is the process of committing something to memory. It is a mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall visual, auditory, or tactical information. The scientific study of mem ...

the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

at an early age, studied the fields of ''

tajweed In the context of the recitation of the Quran, or (, ) is a set of rules for the correct pronunciation of the letters with all their qualities and applying the various traditional methods of recitation, known as . In Arabic, the term is deriv ...

'', Quran,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, ''

Tafsir Tafsir ( ; ) refers to an exegesis, or commentary, of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' (; plural: ). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding ...

'', ''

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

'', ''

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

'' and other Islamic sciences and graduated from the Hasırcılar Quran Course. After successful exams, he worked as an

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

Muezzin The muezzin (; ), also spelled mu'azzin, is the person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer ( ṣalāt) five times a day ( Fajr prayer, Zuhr prayer, Asr prayer, Maghrib prayer and Isha prayer) at a mosque from the minaret. The muezzin ...

and

Mufti A mufti (; , ) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatāwa'' have played an important role thro ...

in Istanbul. Kavakçı graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Istanbul and the Istanbul Yüksek İslam Enstitüsü and received his doctorate in 1967. The professorship followed in 1980. He was Dean of the Theological Faculty of Atatürk University in Erzurum. He was also taught by

Muhammad Hamidullah Muhammad Hamidullah (19 February 1908 – 17 December 2002) was an Indian Islamic scholar from the princely state of Hyderabad. He wrote dozens of books and hundreds of articles on Islamic science, history and culture. Early life and educatio ...

In the United States

Kavakci left Turkey because his daughter was not allowed to study there while wearing a headscarf. He moved to the United States. He worked as a visiting professor at universities such as Philadelphia and Cambridge. In 1988, he moved to

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, becoming the Resident Scholar and Imam of the Islamic Association of North Texas, and the founder and instructor of the private school IANT Quranic Academy in

Richardson, Texas Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas. It is home to the Universit ...

and founding dean of the Suffa Islamic Seminary in Dallas.

John L. Esposito John Louis Esposito (born May 19, 1940) is an American academic, professor of Middle Eastern and religious studies, and scholar of Islamic studies, who serves as Professor of Religion, International Affairs, and Islamic Studies at Georgetown U ...

İbrahim Kalın İbrahim Kalın (born 15 September 1971) is a Turkish bureaucrat and academic who is the current director of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). An academic specialising in Islamic philosophy, Kalın received his doctorate under the su ...

(Hrsg.): ''The Most Influential Muslims in the World'' (

The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (RABIIT) is an international Islamic non-governmental, independent institute in Amman, Jordan. It is affiliated with the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. The late King Hussein Bin Ta ...

, 2009) (Online unte
coreis.it
PDF; 465 kB) He was one of the 138 signatories of the open letter

A Common Word Between Us and You "A Common Word between Us and You" is an open letter, from October 13, 2007, from Muslim to Christian leaders. It calls for peace between Muslims and Christians and tries to work for common ground and understanding between both religions, in line ...

, to "leaders of Christian churches everywhere" (October 13, 2007).acommonword.com: Ein Gemeinsames Wort zwischen Uns und Euch (Zusammengefasste Kurzform)
(PDF; 186 kB) He was listed among the 100 most Influential Muslims in 2009.

Return to Turkey

Kavakçı eventually moved back to Turkey, and is currently a retired faculty member and lectures in theology departments of the Theology Faculties of Istanbul and Marmara University. In addition to numerous Turkish books, he has also published English books on Islamic law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kavakci, Yusuf Ziya Hanafis Maturidis People from Hendek Turkish Sunni Muslims American Sunni Muslims 20th-century Muslim theologians Turkish emigrants to the United States American Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 1938 births Living people Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni 21st-century Muslim theologians Turkish people of Georgian descent 20th-century American theologians 21st-century American theologians