İlahiyat Fakültesi: Turkey’s Theology Faculties and the Training of Islamic Education Professionals

Introduction

Turkey’s İlahiyat Fakülteleri — Faculties of Theology — are the professional training ground for the entire Turkish Islamic education system. Every Kuran kursu öğreticisi (instructor), every İmam Hatip school religious subject teacher, every Diyanet imam and vaize, and the vast majority of Islamic education researchers and academics in Turkey passed through an İlahiyat Fakültesi on their way to their career. With over 100 such faculties operating within Turkey’s state university system — one of the largest concentrations of university-level Islamic education anywhere in the world — they represent a significant and largely overlooked dimension of Turkey’s Islamic education landscape.

For international educators, diaspora families, and prospective students considering Turkey for Islamic higher education, this guide explains what an İlahiyat Fakültesi is, what it teaches, what careers it opens, and how Turkey’s approach to Islamic higher education compares to the rest of the world.

What Is an İlahiyat Fakültesi?

An İlahiyat Fakültesi (Faculty of Theology) is a four-year university-level academic institution operating within a Turkish state university, offering undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes in Islamic theology, religious sciences, and Islamic history and arts. The word “ilahiyat” derives from the Arabic ilāhiyyāt — “matters of divinity” or theology.

Unlike standalone Islamic universities in Saudi Arabia (Jami’at al-Islamiyyah) or Egypt (Al-Azhar University), Turkish İlahiyat Fakülteleri are faculties within secular state universities — not independent institutions. They operate under the governance of YÖK (Yükseköğretim Kurulu — the Higher Education Council) and the individual university, teach in Turkish (with Arabic as a core subject), and combine classical Islamic sciences with modern academic disciplines such as sociology of religion, philosophy of religion, and religious psychology.

This integration within the secular university system — rather than a separate Islamic university framework — is one of Turkey’s distinctive contributions to Islamic higher education globally.

Scale: Over 100 Faculties Across Turkey

Turkey has more than 100 İlahiyat Fakülteleri operating within state universities across the country. This extraordinary concentration reflects the AKP government’s significant expansion of Islamic higher education since 2002 — in 2002, far fewer theology faculties existed; today, virtually every state university in Turkey has one.

Key scale facts:

• 100+ İlahiyat Fakülteleri within state universities nationwide
• Standard 4-year undergraduate programme (lisans)
• Master’s and PhD programmes available at most established faculties
• Teaching conducted in Turkish; Arabic taught throughout as a core language subject
• Open admission through the national university entrance exam (YKS) — no separate theology entrance test
• Female students constitute a substantial and often majority proportion of enrolment

The explosion in faculty numbers has been accompanied by debate about quality. Rapidly opening new faculties across every province means that many are relatively new institutions without the library resources, faculty depth, or academic traditions of established counterparts. The quality range across Turkey’s 100+ İlahiyat Fakülteleri is significant.

The Major İlahiyat Faculties: Ankara, Marmara, Istanbul, and Beyond

While over 100 İlahiyat Fakülteleri exist, a handful stand out for their historical significance, academic depth, and influence on Turkish Islamic education.

Ankara University Faculty of Theology (est. 1949)
The first post-Republican theology faculty, established under the Democrat Party as Turkey’s Islamic education revival began. Ankara University’s İlahiyat Fakültesi has been the most influential institution for defining the intellectual traditions of Turkish state-sanctioned Islamic theology — a modernist, rationalist approach often described as “Ankara School” theology. Its graduates have shaped Diyanet policy and İmam Hatip curriculum for generations.

Marmara University Faculty of Theology (Istanbul, est. 1959)
Founded as the Istanbul Higher Islamic Institute in 1959 and incorporated into Marmara University in 1982, this is Turkey’s most prominent İlahiyat Fakültesi by international recognition and research output. It describes itself as “a pioneering national and international institute” and many other Turkish theology faculty professors received their undergraduate or graduate education here. Its library holds over 120,000 books and approximately 1,500 volumes of Islamic manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish.

Istanbul University Faculty of Theology (re-established 1992)
Istanbul University has the longest institutional lineage of any Turkish university (tracing to the Ottoman Darülfünun), though its Faculty of Theology was re-established in 1992 after decades of absence. Located in one of the Islamic world’s most historically significant cities, it has grown into a significant research institution.

Sakarya University Faculty of Theology
Currently ranked first among Turkish İlahiyat Fakülteleri for research output (21 Web of Science publications in the religion category in 2024) and the first Turkish theology faculty to receive international academic accreditation. A rapidly rising institution.

Other notable faculties:

• Uludağ University Faculty of Theology (Bursa) — long-established, strong tradition
• Selçuk University Faculty of Theology (Konya) — in the heartland of Turkish Islamic cultural heritage
• Atatürk University Faculty of Theology (Erzurum) — serving eastern Turkey
• Erciyes University Faculty of Theology (Kayseri)

Source: Individual faculty websites; Sakarya University SIR ranking 2025; YÖK

The Curriculum: Three Departments, Twenty Disciplines

The standard İlahiyat Fakültesi curriculum is structured around three core departments, with approximately 20 sub-disciplines. This structure is broadly consistent across all Turkish theology faculties, though emphasis and available specialisations vary.

Department of Basic Islamic Sciences (Temel İslam Bilimleri)

This is the classical Islamic scholarship core of the curriculum:

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies (Felsefe ve Din Bilimleri)

The academic, comparative, and social science dimension:

Department of Islamic History and Arts (İslam Tarihi ve Sanatları)

Source: Ankara University Faculty of Theology; Marmara University Faculty of Theology; Mersin University Faculty of Theology

The breadth of this curriculum distinguishes Turkish İlahiyat from pure classical Islamic education (as found in traditional madrasas or Al-Azhar’s primary institutes) and from pure secular religious studies (as found in Western university departments of theology). It is genuinely integrative — classical Islamic scholarship alongside modern academic disciplines.

The Exception: Ibn Haldun University’s Trilingual Programme

One institution stands apart from the standard İlahiyat Fakültesi model: Ibn Haldun University’s School of Islamic Studies in Istanbul.

Ibn Haldun University is a private foundation university (vakıf üniversitesi) — not a state institution. Its School of Islamic Studies offers the only trilingual Islamic studies undergraduate programme in Turkey, with instruction in Turkish, Arabic, and English simultaneously. This is an explicit design choice aimed at both Turkish students who want international exposure and international students who want Islamic studies in a Turkish context.

The trilingual approach makes Ibn Haldun the natural destination for:

• International students from Arab countries seeking Islamic education in Turkey
• Turkish students aiming for international academic or diplomatic careers
• Students from Africa, Central Asia, or Southeast Asia drawn by the combination of Islamic scholarship and English-medium academic training

Ibn Haldun explicitly positions itself as a global Islamic university in the vein of Oxford or Harvard — Islamic scholarship conducted to international academic standards, in multiple languages. It is the only institution in Turkey that comes close to the model of a standalone Islamic university rather than a theology faculty within a secular institution.

Who Attends İlahiyat Fakülteleri?

The student body of Turkish İlahiyat Fakülteleri is more diverse than outsiders typically expect.

İmam Hatip school graduates: A large and historically significant cohort. Students who complete İmam Hatip Lisesi naturally progress to İlahiyat if they want to build on the religious education they received. İmam Hatip graduates have a comparative advantage in Arabic, Quran, and Islamic knowledge on entry.

General high school graduates: İlahiyat is open to all YKS-qualifying students, not just İmam Hatip graduates. Some students from general high schools choose İlahiyat out of genuine religious interest despite limited prior Islamic education.

Female students: As noted in the women’s Islamic education article, female students are often the majority at İlahiyat Fakülteleri. The Diyanet career pathways (KKÖ, vaize) are attractive to religiously motivated women, and İmam Hatip schools have a large female student population that naturally feeds into İlahiyat.

International students: Turkey has become an increasingly popular destination for Islamic studies from the Arab world, Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. The government actively promotes Turkish universities for international study, and İlahiyat programmes — particularly at Ibn Haldun — attract international students seeking Islamic higher education in a modern, accessible framework.

Career Pathways After İlahiyat

The career destinations of İlahiyat Fakültesi graduates are defined by Turkey’s religious and education institutions.

Source: Diyanet DHBT qualification requirements; MEB teacher certification; YÖK academic pathways

The Teacher Quality Debate: A Known Challenge

One of the most significant internal critiques of the İlahiyat Fakültesi system — voiced by İmam Hatip school principals themselves in published research — is the mismatch between what İlahiyat produces and what İmam Hatip schools need.

Studies of İmam Hatip principal perspectives consistently surface the same concern: graduates of İlahiyat Fakülteleri who return to teach religious subjects (Quran, Arabic, Fiqh) at İmam Hatip schools are often inadequately prepared in the practical skills those subjects require — particularly Arabic language proficiency and Quran recitation.

One research study directly quoted principals as estimating that only around 5% of İlahiyat graduates are considered adequately qualified in Arabic and Quranic sciences by İmam Hatip school leadership. The reasons are structural: the academic, text-analytical approach of İlahiyat (reading about Arabic rather than practising it) does not produce the same practical proficiency as the immersive İmam Hatip pathway or a traditional madrasa education.

This is not a new critique, and the Diyanet and MEB are aware of it. The expansion of 100+ İlahiyat Fakülteleri has also diluted the average quality across institutions — many newer faculties lack experienced faculty, deep library resources, or the scholarly traditions of Ankara or Marmara. The quality gap between the best and the median İlahiyat Fakültesi in Turkey is significant.

None of this diminishes the importance of İlahiyat Fakülteleri as the formal professional qualification pathway for Turkish Islamic education — it simply contextualises the ongoing debate about what university-level Islamic theology education should produce.

Postgraduate Study and Turkey as a Destination for International Students

All established İlahiyat Fakülteleri offer postgraduate programmes — typically a 2-year tezli yüksek lisans (thesis master’s) and a 4-year doktora (doctorate). Sub-specialisations available at postgraduate level include Hadith, Tafsir, Fiqh, Kelam, Tasavvuf, Islamic History, Arabic Language, Religious Education, and more.

Turkey is actively positioning itself as an international destination for Islamic studies, particularly for students from:

• Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan): Historic cultural and linguistic ties make Turkey a natural destination. The Diyanet funds scholarship programmes for Central Asian Islamic studies students.
• Africa: Growing numbers of African students — particularly from West Africa and the Horn — pursue Islamic higher education in Turkey through government scholarship programmes (Türkiye Bursları).
• Arab world: Especially for students who want an Islamic education within a modern secular university framework rather than a traditional institution like Al-Azhar.
• Southeast Asia: Malaysian and Indonesian students seeking Islamic studies with a different intellectual tradition.

Ibn Haldun University’s trilingual programme is the clearest expression of this internationalisation agenda — explicitly designed to attract and retain international Islamic studies students who would otherwise go to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Western universities.

İlahiyat vs. Al-Azhar: How Turkey’s System Compares

The most natural comparison for Turkish İlahiyat is Al-Azhar University in Egypt — the world’s most prestigious and influential Islamic institution. The differences are illuminating.

Source: Al-Azhar University; Ankara University Faculty of Theology; academic comparative research

The comparison favours Al-Azhar in terms of global Islamic scholarly authority, Ijazah-chain credentialing, and classical Arabic depth. It favours Turkish İlahiyat in terms of modern academic research standards, integration of social sciences, and practical accessibility for non-Arabic-speaking students. Neither is strictly superior — they serve different intellectual and institutional purposes.

Conclusion

Turkey’s İlahiyat Fakülteleri are the educational foundation of the entire Turkish Islamic education system — the institutions that produce the öğreticiler who teach in Kuran kursları, the teachers who staff İmam Hatip school religious subjects, the vaizeler who lead women’s mosque education, and the academics who shape Turkish Islamic scholarship. With over 100 faculties operating within state universities nationwide, Turkey has one of the largest university-level Islamic education sectors in the world — one that combines classical Islamic sciences with modern academic disciplines in a secular university framework uniquely Turkish in character.

For international students, diaspora Turkish families, and researchers interested in Islamic higher education, Turkish İlahiyat represents an accessible, modern, and intellectually serious pathway into Islamic scholarship — one that is distinct from both the traditional madrasa system and the Al-Azhar model, and all the more valuable for that distinctiveness.

👉 Explore Ilmify’s resources for Islamic educational institutions across Turkey and beyond →

Related Articles

You might also find these helpful:

• 🕌 Islam and Islamic Education in Türkiye: A Complete Overview
• 🕌 İmam Hatip Schools in Turkey: History, Curriculum, and What Makes Them Unique
• 📚 Women’s Islamic Education in Turkey: Kuran Kursları, Vaizeler, and Female Religious Staff
• 📚 Kuran Kursu in Turkey: How the Diyanet’s Nationwide Quran Education Network Works
• ⚙️ Islamic School Management Software for Turkey: What Kuran Kursu Directors Need
• 🕌 Jamiya Naleemiya: Sri Lanka’s Only Islamic University
• 🕌 Jami’at al-Islamiyyah and Higher Islamic Education in Saudi Arabia