The Ottoman Kalam Conference in Istanbul, funded jointly by Recep Senturk’s Istanbul Research and Education Foundation (ISAR) and the think tank Kalam Research and Media, took place at the Islamic Research Centre in Istanbul (ISAM, home to one of the world’s premiere research libraries for Islamic studies) on the 24, 25 and 26 of December.
Hasan Spiker represented Tabah Foundation at the event, presenting original research on the little known Ottoman theologian Ibn Bahāʾuddīn, who in his al-Qawl al-Faṣl married mystical elements from the school of Ibn Arabi with the developed Kalam of Jurjānī, Taftāzānī, Hocazade and others. Other attendees included the Kalam author Professor Ilyas Çelebi, philosophy academic Professor Alparslan Açıkgenç, and the Kalam educator Dr. Said Foudah. The symposium brought together more than 40 researchers from across the world, and will be celebrated in a forthcoming publication, which will bring together the various papers presented at the event.
