ABOUT US

Religionswissenscaft (The History of Religions), one of the significant field having the historic past dating back to 150 years in Turkey same as it was in the Western countries, has become a scientific discipline in the Faculty of Divinity founded in 1949 in Ankara University. This discipline has been progressed itself by the year of 1955 and on wards, and became the specific field in the Religious Studies in our country. In particular, The Academic researches of the discipline done in the Faculty of Divinity of Ankara University has been the pioneer efforts for the rest of the new Turkish faculties of the divinity all around Turkey. Today The History of Religions is the science scheduled in the lectures and in the courses of both the divinities and other some faculties.

Hikmet Tanyu, who was the first academician having Phd decree and first extraordinary Professor in the field, has grounded the discipline well in Turkey and made his disciples brought up well, and has sent them to the rest of the faculties of divinity as the well educated persons in the History of Religions. By his contributions, it can be said that there has been “a Turkish tradition of History of Religions” or by the full sense of the word, “The École of Hikmet Tanyu”.

The Turkish Association for the History of Religions (TAHR) aims at promoting, understanding and proliferating the culture of the History of Religions and its main ideas in Turkey, and to encourage activities in this field and publish work in the discipline in a sincere and academic manner. A further goal TAHR is to provide collaboration and cooperation among Turkish Historians of Religions. In pursuance of the aims of the TAHR, its main activities are depicted as such; to study the field of the History of Religions; to collaborate with sister disciplines and other close disciplines within the context of our aims; to organize academic meetings such as congresses, symposia, seminars, conferences, panels and workshops; to help resolve academic problems of the historians of religions; to encourage understanding of the History of Religions, demonstrate its main features in Turkey widely and become effective in the Country.

This organization has about some 90 members scattered in 22 faculties of the divinities. It is great efforts of the Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman KÜÇÜK, teaching member of the Faculty of Divinity of Ankara, that made this structure founded well in 1994 and has pioneered in Turkey, the vital needs of which had been felt by Turkish historians of religions so far. He has been presided in the executive committee of The Turkish Association for the History of Religions (TAHR) from then. The association has got great contributions from both the member historians of religions and other scholars of religious studies. TAHR has been holding some academic meetings in national and international levels and the proceedings of which have been published as the periodicals named Dinler Tarihi Arastırmalari (The Researches on the History of Religions)

The Turkish Association for the History of Religions (TAHR) has been accepted in September of 2004 as the affiliated member of EASR, European Association for The Study of Religions, and in the February of 2005 as the affiliated member of IAHR International Association for the History of Religions after its application in May of 2004 for both structures.

The center of the Turkish Association for the History of Religions (TAHR) has been located in Ankara (Necatibey Caddesi, 8/114  Sıhhiye-Ankara).

Its web address is http://www.tahr.org