İbrahim Kalın

İbrahim Kalın (born 15 September 1971) is a Turkish bureaucrat and academic who is the current director of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).^[1] An academic specialising in Islamic philosophy, Kalın received his doctorate under the supervision of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. As a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), he previously served as the presidential spokesperson and senior advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from 2014 to 2023 and as the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Security and Foreign Policy in the Presidential Complex.^[2][3]

İbrahim Kalın was born in Istanbul into a family from Erzurum. Kalın received his B.A. in history from the University of Istanbul and M.A. from International Islamic University Malaysia.^[4][5] In 2002, Kalın received a PhD in Islamic studies from George Washington University under the supervision of Islamic philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr.^[6][7][5] His dissertation was later published as Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mullā Ṣadrā on Existence, Intellect, and Intuition.^[4]

From 2002 to 2005, he was a faculty member at the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.^[8] He lectured on Islamic philosophy at Ibn Haldun University between 2019 and 2022, becoming a professor in 2020.^[5] He is a founding member and former director (2005–2009) of the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research based in Ankara, Turkey.^[9] His academic interest is in post-Avicennan Islamic philosophy.^[10]

Kalın entered government in 2009 at the behest of fellow academic and then-Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu,^[4] serving as Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister.^[7] He became the first coordinator of the Prime Ministry Public Diplomacy Coordinatorship established in January 2010. In 2012, he became Assistant Secretary of the Prime Ministry. On December 11 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Kalın would be the first official Turkish Presidential Press Secretary. In November 2018, he was appointed as Senior Advisor to Erdoğan.^[11] On June 5 2023, Erdoğan appointed Kalın as director of the National Intelligence Organization.^[5]

His parents are from İspir, Erzurum.^[12] He is married and has three children.^[5] His hobbies include music, especially folk music. He professionally plays the bağlama, sings and has music on YouTube with millions of views.^[13] He speaks English, Arabic, Persian and French.^[7]

• Kalın, İbrahim. İslam ve Batı. İstanbul: İSAM, 2007. ISBN 978-9-75-389879-9
• Bülbül, Kudret, Bekir Berat Özipek ve İbrahim Kalın, ed. Aşk ile Nefret Arasında Türkiye’de Toplumun Batı Algısı. Ankara: SETA, 2008. ISBN 978-6-05-005700-3
• Kalın, İbrahim. Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sandra on Existence, Intellect and Intuition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-19-973524-2
• Kalın, İbrahim. Akıl ve Erdem. İstanbul: Küre Yayınları, 2013. ISBN 978-9-75-574952-5
• M. Ghazi bin Muhammad, İbrahim Kalın ve Kalın, İbrahim. "M. Ghazi bin Muhammad and M. Hashim Kamali, ed. War, Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad. Amman: MABDA, 2013. ISBN 978-1-90-368283-8
• Kalın, İbrahim, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-19-981257-8
• Sadra, Mulla. The Book of Metaphysical Penetrations, A Parallel English-Arabic Text of Kitab al-Masha’ir. Ed. İbrahim Kalın. Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-84-252839-9
• Kalın, İbrahim. Varlık ve İdrak: Molla Sadrâ’nın Bilgi Tasavvuru. Çev. Nurullah Koltaş. İstanbul: Klasik Yayınları, 2015. ISBN 978-6-05-524554-2
• Kalın, İbrahim. Ben, Öteki ve Ötesi: İslam-Batı İlişkileri Tarihine Giriş. İstanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 2016. ISBN 978-9-75-574805-4
• Kalın, İbrahim. Barbar, Modern, Medenî: Medeniyet Üzerine Notlar. İstanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 2018. ISBN 978-9-75-574887-0
• Kalın, İbrahim. Perde ve Mânâ: Akıl Üzerine Bir Tahlil. İstanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 2020. ISBN 978-9-75-574939-6
• Kalın, İbrahim. Açık Ufuk: İyi, Doğru ve Güzel Düşünme Üzerine. İstanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 2021. ISBN 978-9-75-574963-1
• Kalın, İbrahim. Gök Kubbenin Altında. İstanbul: Mecra Kitap, 2022. ISBN 978-6-05-712740-2

• Kalın, İbrahim. "The Sacred Versus the Secular: Nasr on Science.” Library of Living Philosophers: Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Ed. L. E. Hahn, R. E. Auxier and L. W. Stone. Chicago: Open Court Press, 2001, 445–462.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Three Views of Science in the Islamic World.” God, Life, and the Cosmos: Christian and Islamic Perspectives. Ed. Ted Peters Muzaffar Iqbal and Syed Nomanul Haq. Oxford: Routledge, 2002, 19–53.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Roots of Misconseption: Euro-American Perceptions of Islam Before and After September 11.” Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition. Ed. Joseph E. B. Lumbard. Indiana: World Wisdom, 2009: 143–187.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Islamophobia and the Limits of Multiculturalism.” Islamophobia and the Challenges of Pluralism in the 21st Century, Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2011, 50–61.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “The Ak Party in Turkey.” The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. Ed. John L. Esposito and Emad El-Din Shahin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 423–439.

• Kalın, İbrahim. “An Annotated Bibliography of the Works of Mullâ Sadrâ with a Brief Account of His Life.” Islamic Studies. 42/1 (2003): 21–62.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Islam and Peace: A Survey of the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition.” Islamic Studies. 44/3 (2005): 327–362.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Debating Turkey in the Middle East: the Dawn of a New Geo-Political Imagination?” Insight Turkey. (2009): 83–96.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Modern Dünyada Geleneksel İslâm’ın İzini Süren Bir Hakîm: Seyyid Hüseyin Nasr.” İş Ahlakı Dergisi. 2/3 (2009): 135–142.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “US-Turkish Relations under Obama: Promise, Challenge and Opportunity in the 21st Century.” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 12/1 (2010): 93–108.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in Turkey.” Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs. 16/3 (2011): 5–23.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Turkish Foreign Policy: Framework, Values, and Mechanisms.” International Journal. 67/1 (2012): 7–21.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “After the Coup Attempt, Turkey’s Success Story Continues.” Insight Turkey. 18/3 (2016): 11–17.
• Kalın, İbrahim. “Hoca Ahmed Yesevî, Hüküm ve Hikmet.” Bilig. 80 (2017): 1–14.

• MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2nd Edition
• MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd Edition
• Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy
• Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World^[6]

• Official website
• Column archives at Daily Sabah Newspaper
• Column archives at Yeni Şafak