Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 10/07/2007
Oration at the Ceremony of Presentation of the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa in Law at the University of Exeter His Excellency Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a post which he has held since January 2005. Prior to that he was, for 24 years, Director-General of the Organisation’s prestigious Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA). He has, concurrently with these posts, also served as President of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (between 2001 and 2005), Vice-Chairman of the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation in London (since 1998), Founder and Chairman of the first Department of History of Science in Turkey, and Founder and Chairman of the Turkish Society for the History of Science (since 1989). Adding to the many dimensions of his activities he has also served as Ambassador-at-Large of the Government of Bosnia and Herzogovina since 1997. As you will already have gathered, Professor Ihsanoglu’s career has been marked by the breadth of his interests and activities. He has, in fact, straddled a number of crucial intellectual divides – divides which bring strength when they are integrated and made compatible, and danger or disaster when they are not. It is this role of his, in straddling the divides and making different traditions compatible, which makes it so appropriate for the University of Exeter to be honouring him today. For the University’s mission is one of integration rather than division, where true knowledge requires the removal of artificial partitions – whether constituted by academic specialisation, culture, class or anything else. The first divide which Professor Ihsanoglu has straddled is that of culture. His background is itself built on cultural diversity. Although of Turkish nationality, he was born in Cairo in 1943 and spent most of the early part of his life in Egypt. He undertook his BSc and MSc degrees at Ain Shams University in Cairo, finishing those in 1966 and 1970 respectively. His first full-time post took him back to Turkey, where he took up a post at Ankara University in 1970. His cultural background, therefore, gave him access to the great civilisations of Turkey and the Arab world. From this basis he spread his cultural engagement to the wider Islamic world. His research and publications show a profound understanding of Islamic civilisation in all its diversity and intellectual wealth. Finally he has engaged crucially and very substantially with the Western world. The interaction between Western and Islamic civilisations lies at the heart of his most important writings, and he has acted as a key Islamic interlocuter with Western intellectual circles. His engagement with the Western world has gone beyond simply creating greater awareness of Islamic culture. His concern has been with promoting rapprochment between cultures in a more general sense. He has argued that the common denominators between civilisations can and should constitute the basis on which global relations are conducted. The differing cultural and faith frameworks, therefore, must be used to promote cooperation and not to sow discord. In this way inter-faith and intercultural understanding becomes the key to global peace. Second, Professor Ihsanoglu has straddled the divide of science and humanities. His initial academic training, through to the PhD which he completed at Ankara University in 1974, was in science. His first post outside Turkey was also in science, and it is here that Exeter enters the scene. Between 1975 and 1977 he was Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Exeter, working on a project entitled “Kinetics, Hydrolysis and Aminolysis of Methoxycarbonyl-Pyridium Ions”. Yet most of his work relates as much to the humanities as it does to the sciences. Among the 9 books by him in our University library are such titles as Multicultural Science in the Ottoman Empire; Science in Islamic Civilisation; Science, Technology and Learning in the Ottoman Empire: Western Influence, Local Institutions and the Transfer of Knowledge; and various catalogues of Islamic manuscripts. He has also written works on the History of Ottoman Astronomical Literature, Ottoman Mathematical Literature, and Ottoman Musical Literature. Third, Professor Ihsanoglu has combined his academic activity with a practical and organisational role in building and developing institutions which reflect his values and his interests. The 24 years which he spent as Director-General of the Istanbul-based Institute for Islamic History, Art and Culture was crucial. He founded the Institute and developed it to become a focal point for the deepening of understanding of Islamic culture in all its dimensions: a place where scholars and those with lay interests could exchange and develop their knowledge, a centre where important cultural documentation could be kept, and a powerful publishing operation through which ideas could be spread. His role as Vice-Chairman of the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation in London, which in many ways covers similar interests to the Istanbul-based Institute, has also been crucial. In the most recent period, since 1 January 2005, however, he has moved into his most important organisational role: that of Secretary-General of the intergovernmental Organisation of the Islamic Conference. The OIC, as I will refer to it here, was established in 1969 and now groups together 57 Islamic countries. It is committed to promoting solidarity, collaborative action and the peaceful resolution of conflicts among Islamic countries, but its Charter also commits it to enhancing cooperation and understanding between Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Professor Ihsanoglu has provided the organisation with strong and effective leadership. He has the key role in negotiating between governments to create agreed positions on the issues confronting Islamic countries, both bilaterally and through the network of committees and meetings through which OIC business is conducted. But he has also helped set the agenda through the speeches which he has delivered around the world as OIC Secretary-General. Over the past 6 months alone his speeches have covered such diverse topics as the development of a trade preferential system among OIC countries, the role of the media in creating tolerance and mutual understanding, human rights issues, the economic role of tourism, the future of Iraq, events in Palestine, and environmental survival and sustainability. This constitutes the very best example of an intellectual entering the political world and helping to shape the framework within which governments act. Professor Ihsanoglu’s record of achievement is indeed worthy of honour and respect. I now have pleasure in presenting His Excellency Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu for the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. Professor Tim Niblock Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies University of Exeter
