Dr Colin Turner

Visiting Reader in Classical Islamic Thought and Persian Literature

Dr Colin Turner, Head of Research at the International Foundation for Muslim Theology, was until 2017 Reader in Islamic Thought at the University of Durham. A trained historian and theologian, his chief areas of interest are Muslim philosophy and theology; anthropology of religion; and Muslim intellectual history, with particular focus on the life and works of the Ottoman scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. He is the author of numerous publications, including the best-selling Islam: The Basics and The Quran Revealed: A Critical Analysis of Said Nursi’s Epistles of Light. He has recently completed a re-translation from Ottoman Turkish into English of the Risale-i Nur, Said Nursi’s six-thousand-page commentary on the Quran, and is currently writing a book on the cultural anthropology of “immortality longing”, with special reference to the Quran.

At The Classical Institute, Dr Turner will lead Persian Through the Mathnawi: Reading Rumi in the Original, a programme designed to introduce students to classical Persian through direct engagement with Jalal al-Din Rumi’s Mathnawi. Through guided reading, recitation, and close attention to literary structure, vocabulary, and poetic form, the programme invites participants into one of the foundational works of the Persian literary tradition while cultivating greater confidence in reading classical Persian in the original language.