MEVLANA JALALUDDİN RUMİ and SUFISM
MEVLANA JALALUDDİN RUMİ and SUFISM (A Dervish’s Logbook) Mim Kemâl ÖKE 1 Dr. Mim Kemâl ÖKE Mim Kemal Öke was born in Istanbul in 1955 to a family with Central Asian Uygur heritage. Öke attended Şişli Terakki Lyceum for grade school and Robert College for high school. After graduating from Robert College in 1973, he went to England to complete his higher education in the fields of economics and history at Cambridge University. He also specialized in political science and international relations at Sussex, Cambridge, and Istanbul universities. In 1979 he went to work at the United Nation’s Palestine Office. He returned to Turkey in 1980 to focus on his academic career. He soon became an assistant professor at Boğaziçi University in 1984 and a professor in 1990. In 1983, TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) brought Öke on as a general consulting manager for various documentaries, including “Voyage from Cadiz to Samarkand in the Age of Tamerlane.” Up until 2006 he was involved in game shows, talk shows, news programs and discussion forums on TRT, as well as on privately owned channels. He also expressed his evaluations on foreign policy in a weekly syndicated column, “Mim Noktası” (Point of Mim). Though he manages to avoid administrative duties, he has participated in official meetings abroad on behalf of the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Throughout his academic career, Öke has always prioritized research. Of his more than twenty works published in Turkish, English, Urdu and Arabic, his writings on the issues of Palestine, Armenia, Mosul, and the Caliphate as they relate to the history of Ottoman and Turkish foreign policy are considered foundational resources.
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