Istanbul Mufti Prof. Dr. Safi Arpaguş was appointed as the new head of Türkiye's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet Işleri Başkanlığı), according to a decree published in the Official Gazette on Thursday.
Arpaguş will replace Ali Erbaş, who has served as the country's top religious official since 2017.
Born in 1967 in Amasya’s Gümüşhacıköy district, Arpaguş completed his degree at Marmara University’s Faculty of Theology in 1990. He began his academic career as a research assistant in the university’s Department of Sufism in 1992.
He earned his master’s degree in 1994 with a thesis on Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi and completed his doctorate in 2001 on Mevlana’s methods of religious expression. Arpaguş also spent time in the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2003 and in Syria in 2010. He became an associate professor in 2008 and a full professor in 2014, continuing to teach at Marmara University.
Among his notable works are Mevlana and Islam: Perception and Expression, Spiritual Training in Mevlevi Order, Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi: Conversations, and multi-volume editions of classical Sufi commentaries.
