Islamic Studies 

hcalis@respectgs.us

B.A. – Ankara University, 1995. 

M.A. – Marmara University, 1999.  

M.A. – Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 2006.  

Ph.D. – University of Chicago, 2018.  

Areas of specialization: Qur’anic Studies, Sufism, Ottoman History, Islamic History, Islamic Theology, World Religions. 

Dr. Halim Calis graduated from Ankara University (Ankara, Turkey) and completed his MA on Islamic Theology at Marmara University (Istanbul, Turkey). He completed another MA on World Religions at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Divinity School. His doctoral dissertation is on Shams al-Dīn al-Fanārī (d. 1431), an Ottoman scholar who appropriated Akbarī hermeneutics in his Qur’an commentary. Besides the formal education Dr. Calis has received, he has been studying the classical sources of Islam since 1990’s. He conducts research in English, Turkish and Arabic. He can also read French and Persian. He has published encyclopedia entries, book chapters and articles for Turkish and English journals. 

Most recent publications: 

“’Ayn Al-A’yān: The First Prominent Qur’anic Commentary in Ottoman History.” Australian Journal of Islamic Studies 7.1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v7i1.405. 

“The Theoretical Foundations of Contextual Interpretation of the Qur’an in Islamic Theological Schools and Philosophical Sufism.” Religions 13.2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020188. 

“The Hadith ‘Four Aspects of the Qur’an’ and the Evolution of Sufi Exegesis.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies, 22.3 (2020).