Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was born on December 26, 1943, in Cairo, Egypt, to a Turkish family with deep roots in Ottoman scholarly and administrative tradition. He spent his formative years between Egypt and Turkey, receiving an education that straddled both Arab and Turkish cultural worlds. He pursued his university education in Turkey and subsequently undertook advanced studies in the history of science, completing doctoral work that would lay the groundwork for a career of extraordinary breadth and influence.

Ihsanoglu's academic career centered on the history of science and technology in the Islamic world, with particular emphasis on the Ottoman period. He became a founding figure in the systematic cataloguing of Islamic scientific manuscripts, directing projects that documented thousands of previously unstudied texts in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and natural philosophy held in libraries across the Islamic world. His multi-volume catalogues of Ottoman scientific literature remain standard references for historians of science worldwide.

In 1980, Ihsanoglu founded the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) in Istanbul under the auspices of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which he directed for many years. He subsequently served as the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) from 2005 to 2014, becoming the most senior official of the world's second-largest intergovernmental organization and using that platform to champion the scientific and cultural heritage of Islamic civilization on the global stage.

Ihsanoglu has authored and edited dozens of books, including the monumental multi-volume History of the Ottoman State, Society and Civilisation. He has received honorary doctorates from universities across the world and numerous state honors from Turkey and other nations. In 2014 he ran as a presidential candidate in Turkey, demonstrating the breadth of his public standing. He remains one of the most consequential figures in the modern effort to document, preserve, and promote the scientific legacy of Islamic civilization.