Cemalnur Sargut

Cemalnur Sargut
Personal life
Born	(1953-11-03) 3 November 1953 (age 71) Istanbul, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Parents	Ömer Faruk Sargut (father) Meşkûre Sargut (mother)
Main interest(s)	Islamic philosophy, Sufism
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Tariqa	Rifaʽi
Creed	Maturidi
Muslim leader
Teacher	Samiha Ayverdi
Influenced by Rumi, Haji Bektash Veli, Shams Tabrizi
Website	cemalnur.org

Cemalnur Sargut (born November 3, 1952) is a Turkish Sufi, a leader of the Rifa'i order, author, and Islamic scholar.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Biography

Cemalnur Sargut was born to Meskure Sargut and Omer Faruk Sargut on November 3, 1952 in Istanbul.^[7] Sargut's mother was a disciple of Turkish Sufi master Ken'an Rifa'i.^[1] She attended Kadikoy High School for Girls and studied chemical engineering at the National Academy of Architecture and Engineering in Istanbul. As a young woman, Sargut was a student of Sufi mystic and writer Samiha Ayverdi.^[1] She worked as a chemistry teacher for twenty years.^[7]

Sargut is a scholar of Ken'an Rifa'i, although she never met him in person.^[1] She has studied the works of Ibn 'Arabi, Misri Niyazi, Abu Bakr al-Shibli, Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, Abd al-Karim al-Jili, Ahmad al-Rifaʽi, and Rumi.^[7] Sargut is active as a religious leader appearing on television and giving sermons aired on Turkish radio.^[1] Her discourses were compiled by her students and published as Dinle (Listen) by Nefes Press in 2012. This work was translated into English and published by Fons Vitae as Beauty and Light: Mystical Discourses by a Contemporary Female Sufi Master.^[1]

Sargut is the leader of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish Women's Cultural Association (TÜRKKAD) which promotes Turkish culture, traditional Turkish artforms, and provides education for low-income students.^[8] TÜRKKAD was founded by Samiha Ayyverdi in 1966 during a revival of NGOs resulting from the state's repression of Islamic organizations, schools, and Sufi lodges.^[1] Turkey banned Sufi orders and practices in 1925 under Kemalist ideology, forcing Sufis to operate covertly.^[9]

Sargut is the author of over a dozen books about Islam and Sufism.^[1] Sargut and her organization endowed the Kenan Rifai Distinguished Professorship of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina in 2009.^[1][10] They have also endowed a chair at Peking University in Beijing, China.^[1] They helped establish the Kenan Rifa'i Center for Sufi Studies at Kyoto University.^[1][11]

Works

• Mülk Suresi
• Allah'ıma Sefere Çıktım
• Kenan Rifâî ile Aşka Yolculuk
• Dinle
• Aşktan Dinle
• Ey İnsan (Yasîn Sûresi Şerhi)
• Bakara (Bakara Sûresi ilk 10 Ayetin Şerhi)
• Bakara II (Bakara Sûresi 11-29 arasındaki Ayetlerin Şerhi)
• Bakara III (İnsan-ı Kamil'in Hakikati)
• Hz. Âdem (Füsusu’l Hikem Şerhi)
• Hz. Şit (Füsusu’l Hikem Şerhi)
• Hz. Nuh (Füsusu’l Hikem Şerhi)
• Hz. İdris (Füsusu’l Hikem Şerhi)
• Sâmiha Ayverdi ile Sırra Yolculuk
• Peygambere Sevdirilen Kadın
• Kâbe’nin Hakîkati
• Osmanlı Padişahlarında Peygamber Sevgisi
• Can-ı Candır Hz. Ahmed Muhammed Mustafa
• Hz. Meryem - Yaratılış Sırrı (Meryem Sûresi 1-15 arasındaki Ayetlerin Şerhi)
• Sohbetler
• Ayetü'l Kürsi
• Peygamber Sevgisi
• Yaratılış Sırrı

Works in English

• Beauty and Light: Mystical Discourses by a Contemporary Female Sufi Master, translated by Canguzel Zulfikar, Omer Colakaglu and Nazli Kayahan, edited by Tehseen Thaver
• O Humankind: Surah Ya-Sin, translated by Victoria Rowe Holbrook

References

1. Sargut, Cemalnur (2018). Zulfikar, Canguzel; Colakoglu, Omer; Kayahan, Nazli (eds.). Beauty and Light: Mystical Discourses of A Contemporary Female Sufi Master. Translated by Thaver, Tehseen. Fons Vitae. ISBN 978-1941610060.
2. Howe, Justine (2020). The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender. Routledge. ISBN 9781351256544.
3. "Cemalnur Sargut kimdir?". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
4. "Poetry and worship with Sara Saleh, and Turkish Sufi Cemalnur Sargut". ABC Radio National. 2003-10-10. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
5. "Buket Aydın a konuşan Cemalnur Sargut uyardı – Güncel Haberler, Son Dakika Haberleri, Turktime Haber Portalı". Turktime (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-10-30.
6. "Sargut: Mesnevi Kuran'ın özetidir". CNN Türk (in Turkish). 2017-06-04. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
7. "Cemalnur Sargut | WISE Muslim Women Cemalnur Sargut". WISE Muslim Women. 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
8. Moosa, Ebrahim; Kennedy, Jeffrey T. (2013). Islam in the Modern World. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135007959.
9. "Sufism in Turkey". rpl.hds.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
10. "UNC Launches Campaign for Distinguished Professorship in Islamic Studies". UNC Global. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
11. "Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies". Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies. Retrieved 2021-10-23.

External links

• Cemalnur.org (in Turkish)