Researcher Profile

Professor Ismail Albayrak

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, School of Theology

Areas of expertise: Islamic studies; Islamic theology, qur'anic studies; interfaith dialogue; hizmet movement; Ibadism

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full 

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2463-7068

Phone: +61 03 9953 3884

Email: ismail.albayrak@acu.edu.au

Location: Melbourne Campus ACU

Ismail Albayrak received his PhD degree from Leeds University in 2000. He worked then at Sakarya University, Adapazarı/TURKEY, where he taught and wrote on Qur’anic studies, classical exegesis, contemporary approaches to the Qur’an, interfaith dialogue, and Orientalism. He is also interested in the place of Muslim communities and their activities in a globalizing world, together with the study of interfaith dialogue. His most recent research focuses on the Ibadi tradition, the relationship between sounds and meaning in the Qur’an, classical prison literature in Islamic societies, and the status of women in Islamic traditions. In January 2008 he was appointed to the newly established Fethullah Gülen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations at Australian Catholic University (ACU) and left it in 2014. Since 2018 he has been working part-time (0.5) as a Professorial Fellow at the same University.

Select publications

• Mastering Knowledge in Modern Times: Fethullah Gülen as an Islamic Scholar, (ed. İsmail Albayrak), New York: Blue Dome Press, 2011
• Ismail Albayrak, ed. Approaches to Ibāḍī Exegetical Tradition. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1453kdx.
• Ismail Albayrak-Salih Yucel, The Art of Coexistence: Pioneering Role of Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement, (ed. Salih Yucel and Ismail Albayrak) New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2014
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘Reading the Bible in the light of Muslim sources: from isra’iliyyat to islamiyyat’, Journal of Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations, 23/2 (2012), 113-127.
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘The Reception of Toshihiko Izutsu’s Qur’anic Studies in the Muslim World: With Special References to Turkish Qur’anic Scholarship, Journal of Qur’anic Studies, 14/1 (2012), 69-102.
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘Friday Sermons and the Question of home-trained Imams in Australia’, Australian eJournal of Theology 19.1 (April 2012).
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘The Other” Among Us: The Perception of Khārijī and Ibāḍī Islam in the Muslim Exegetical Traditions’, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 54:1 (2013), 35-63 doi:10.1501/Ilhfak_0000001377.
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘Life’s Beginnings and End with Reference to Fethullah Gülen,’ Islamic Quarterly, 57/2 (2013), 85-116.
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘The People of the Book (Ahl al-Kitab)’, War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad, (eds) by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, Ibrahim Kalin, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Jordan: The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought 2013, 282-303.
• Ismail Albayrak, Challenges in Inter-Religious Dialogue: Initiatives and Activities of the Gülen (Hizmet) Movement in Turkey', The Art of Coexistence: Pioneering Role of Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement, New Jersey: Tughra Books 2014, 57-89.
• Ismail Albayrak and Sulayman al-Shueili, ‘The Ibāḍī Approach to the Methodology of Qur'anic Exegesis’, Journal of Muslim World, 105/2 (2015), 163–193, doi:10.1111/muwo.12092.
• Ismail Albayrak, ‘A Turkish Exegesis of the Early Twentieth Century: Elmalili (d. 1942) and his Hak Dini Kur'an Dili’, The Qur'an and its Readers Worldwide: Contemporary Commentaries and Translations, ed. Suha Taji-Farouki, OUP/IIS, Qur'anic Studies Series, 2016, 163-194.
• Ismail Albayrak-Suleyman Shueili, "Re-Evaluation of the Notion of Jesus’ Return in Ibāḍī Exegetical Tradition." In Approaches to Ibāḍī Exegetical Tradition, edited by Albayrak Ismail, 117-44. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1453kdx.7.
• Ismail Albayrak, "Ibāḍī Tafsīr, A Historical Survey." In Approaches to Ibāḍī Exegetical Tradition, edited by Albayrak Ismail, 1-64. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1453kdx.4.
• Yilmaz, Ihsan-Ismail Albayrak. 2021. "Religion as an Authoritarian Securitization and Violence Legitimation Tool: The Erdoğanist Diyanet’s Framing of a Religious Movement as an Existential Threat" Religions 12, no. 8: 574. doi:10.3390/rel12080574. 

Appointments and affiliations

Professional appointment

• Professorial Fellow Australian Catholic University (2018-)
• Professor Australian Catholic University, director of Fethullah Gulen Chair in the study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations (since January 2008-2014)
• Associated Professor Sakarya University/School of Divinity, Dept. of Basic Islamic Sciences (since November 2005)
• Assistant Professor Sakarya University/School of Divinity, Dept. of Basic Islamic Sciences (since April 2001).

Affiliation

• AAIMS (the Australian Assoication of Islamic and Muslim Studies)
• Research Assistant Sakarya University/School of Divinity, Dept. of Basic Islamic Sciences (Qur’anic Studies) (December 1994–April 2001).

International journal review panel

• Asian Politics & Policy
• Journal of Usûl (Methodology)
• Journal of Sakarya University
• Journal of Religious Education
• Scientific Journal of Religious Presidency of Turkish Republic
• Journal of Research in Islamic Studies
• Insights
• Journal of Global Responsibility
• Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
• Australia Religion Studies Review
• EKEV Academic Journal
• Bioethics
• Australian Journal of Islamic Studies
• South Asian Journal of Religion and Philosophy
• Journal of Religion and Health