Prof. Dr. Ali ERBAŞ
President of Religious Affairs
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
He was born in 1961 in the Yeşilyurt village of Kabadüz district of the Ordu province. He completed his primary education in Yeşilyurt village primary school. He graduated from the Sakarya Imam-Hatip School in 1984.
He served as religious personnel in various different mosques affiliated to Diyanet’s Istanbul Mufti Office between 1982 and 1993.
Erbaş completed his master degree at the Marmara University Theology Faculty Department of Hermeneutics in 1987 with his thesis entitled, “Repetitions in Quran” and PhD degree in the Department of History of Religions in 1993 with his thesis entitled, “Belief in Angels in Divine Religions”.
Between 1988 and 1990, he participated in specialzation courses for masters and PhD students iat the İstanbul Haseki Training Center.
In 1993, he was appointed to the Sakarya University Theology Faculty Department of History of Religions as an associated professor. In July and August of 1994, he carried out research studies about History of Religions and Theology in the libraries of the Centre George Pompidou and Sorbonne University in Paris. Later in the start of the 1996-1997 academic year, he carried out his research and studies at the Strasbourg Human Science University as guest academician.
He returned to Türkiye at the beginning of 1997-1998 academic year and became Associate Professor in November of 1998 and professor in the January of 2004.
Between 1993 and 2006, he served as the President of the Department of History of Religions and during the same period he also served as the President of Philosophy and Theology Science.
He served as the Deputy Dean at the Sakarya University Theology Faculty for five years between 1997 and 2002 and served as the Dean of the same university for two terms between 2006 and 2011. He worked as Senate Member of the Sakarya University between 2003 and 2011 as well as member of the Executive Board of the same university between 2006 and 2011.
In 2011, he was appointed to the General Directorate of Education Services at Diyanet.
Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş was appointed as the Rector of the Yalova University Rector on July 08, 2017.
He has been appointed as the President of Diyanet on 17.09.2017.
President of Diyanet Erbaş has published 12 books, numerous articles at home and abroad, has presented numerous papers at international and domestic symposiums and conferences, speaks excellent Arabic and French.
Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş is married and a father of four.
