Prof. SONER GÜNDÜZÖZ

Prof. Dr. Soner Gündüzöz was born in 1970. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Atatürk University in 1994 and completed his M.A. in Arabic Language at the same university in 1997. He received his Ph.D. in Arabic Language from Ondokuz Mayıs University in 2002. Between 1995 and 2006, he served as Research Assistant and Doctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Arabic Language and Rhetoric at the Faculty of Theology of Ondokuz Mayıs University. He was awarded the title of Associate Professor on 20 March 2006 and became Full Professor in 2011.

In 2007, Prof. Gündüzöz worked as an Expert at the High Council of Religious Affairs of the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Türkiye. On 29 August 2008, he was appointed as a Member of the High Council of Religious Affairs, where he also served as Rapporteur of the Council and Deputy Secretary General of the Fourth Religious Council (IV. Din Şûrası). During this period, he additionally contributed to the Hadith Project conducted by the Presidency of Religious Affairs. By Presidential Decree dated 10 July 2020 and published in the Official Gazette No. 31182 on 11 July 2020, he was reappointed as a Member of the High Council of Religious Affairs and served in this position between 2020 and 2025.

Prof. Gündüzöz held academic positions at several universities in Türkiye. After serving as Associate Professor and later Professor at Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Theology between 2006 and 2013, he joined Ankara University Faculty of Theology in 2013. He subsequently served at Ordu University Faculty of Theology and at Kırıkkale University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Eastern Languages and Literatures, where he also worked as Director of the School of Foreign Languages between 2016 and 2017. Since 2017, he has continued his academic career as Professor in the Department of Basic Islamic Sciences at Ankara University Faculty of Theology.

His research focuses primarily on Arabic linguistics, Arabic morphology and lexicography, Qur’anic language and semantics, philosophy of language in Islamic thought, translation theory, Qur’an translation studies, classical Arabic rhetoric, and Islamic epistemology. In recent years, a substantial part of his scholarship has concentrated on the moral philosophy and intellectual paradigm of the Moroccan philosopher Taha Abdurrahman.

Prof. Gündüzöz is the author of numerous scholarly books, including Word Derivation in Arabic: Concepts, Theories and Institutions (2005), The Deconstruction of Arabic Thought: Philosophical and Ideological Structuring of Arabic Linguistics (2011), The Unique Language of the Qur’an: Responses to Grammatical Claims in the Qur’an (2011), The Vocabulary of Arabic (2015), Taha Abdurrahman’s Paradigm of Divine Trust and Theory of Moral Action (2021), Taha Abdurrahman’s Moral Philosophy: An Epistemological and Etymological Evaluation (2022), The Destruction of Sacred Language: The Problem of Meaning in Islamic Thought (2024), and False Servants of God: Essays on Jāhiliyya and the Qur’an (2025). His forthcoming book, Sībawayh: His Life, Work and Linguistic Theory, will be published by İSAM Publications.

In addition to his authored works, Prof. Gündüzöz has translated several important intellectual and philosophical texts from Arabic into Turkish. Among these are Taha Abdurrahman’s The Spirit of Religion: From the Shallowness of Secularism to the Vastness of the Paradigm of Trust (2020) and The Misery of Secular Ethics (2023). He has also translated The Sovereign of the East: The Missing Link in Islamic Political Theory by Abd al-Hamīd al-Kātib together with Prof. Dr. Güldane Gündüzöz.

Prof. Gündüzöz has published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals on topics related to Arabic grammar, Qur’anic linguistics, semiotics, rhetoric, Islamic thought, and philosophy of language. His articles include studies such as “An Examination of the Emergence of Arabic Grammar,” “Historical and Philological Boundaries of Classical and Modern Arabic,” “Truth and Metaphor in Islamic Thought,” and “The Possibility of an Islamic Ethics of Dialogue: Taha Abdurrahman’s Theory of Witness-Based Communication.” He has also contributed encyclopedia articles to the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation Encyclopedia of Islam (DİA) and authored numerous entries for encyclopedic reference works on Islamic intellectual history.

Throughout his academic career, Prof. Gündüzöz has presented papers and delivered lectures at many national and international conferences, symposia, and seminars in Türkiye and abroad, particularly in France and Saudi Arabia. His presentations have addressed subjects such as Arabic linguistics, Qur’anic semantics, Islamic ethics, translation theory, Arabic pedagogy, and the intellectual legacy of Taha Abdurrahman. He has additionally participated in numerous television and radio programs, especially on Diyanet TV and Diyanet Radio, where he has spoken on Qur’anic interpretation, Islamic civilization, moral philosophy, Arabic language studies, and contemporary religious thought.

Prof. Gündüzöz has undertaken significant editorial and institutional responsibilities. He has served as Editorial Board Member of Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi and the Arabic Academic Journal of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, as well as Arabic Editor for VakıfBank Culture Publications. He has also taken part in the scientific committees of various international symposia and academic projects. Since 2021, he has been a member of the Translation Committee of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, contributing to the project entitled Plain and Annotated Turkish Translation of the Qur’an. In 2025, he coordinated the “Meal Müzakereleri” project.

He has supervised numerous graduate theses in the fields of Arabic linguistics, Qur’anic studies, lexicography, rhetoric, and translation studies, including doctoral dissertations on sound-meaning relations in classical Arabic linguistics, signification theory in Islamic thought, Arabic narrative traditions, and the linguistic methodologies of classical Arab scholars.

Prof. Gündüzöz received the Second Place Faculty Achievement Award at the Ankara University Awards Ceremony held on 27 March 2026. He is fluent in Turkish and Arabic and possesses academic proficiency in English.