06 September 2017•Update: 06 September 2017
By Emrah Guney
ISTANBUL
Serif Mardin, a well-known Turkish sociologist and political scientist, passed away Wednesday in Istanbul.
Mardin, 90, had been under treatment at a private hospital, according to Istanbul-based Sehir University, where Mardin was a professor of sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.
"We will always fondly remember Serif Mardin who has left behind an unparalleled legacy with his pioneering and breakthrough scientific studies in the areas of religion and modernization, civil society, ideology, and center-periphery relations in Turkey," a statement said.
Minister of Culture and Tourism Numan Kurtulmus also issued a statement saying "Mardin will forever be remembered with utmost respect" for his works and contributions to academic life.
Born in Istanbul in 1927, Mardin received his Bachelor's degree in political science from California-based Stanford University in 1948. He then went on to Johns Hopkins University for his graduate studies where he got his Master's degree in international relations in 1950. He then went back to Stanford and got his PhD degree in political science in 1958.
Throughout his academic career, Mardin worked at Ankara, Bogazici and Sabanci universities in Turkey, and was also the chair of Islamic Studies at Washington-based American University for 10 years.
His works mostly deal with the modernization of Turkey, its socio-political transformation as well as politics and religion, mainly focusing on the late Ottoman and early Republican period of Turkey.
His PhD dissertation titled The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought was published by Princeton University in 1962.
Mardin will be laid to rest on Thursday in Istanbul after the noon prayer at Yenikoy Mosque.
