Faculty

Biography

Mehmet Karabela is a scholar of Islamic intellectual history. He is the author of Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes and Mustafa Sabri Efendi. Dr. Karabela’s recent book, Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes, examines the engagement of post-Reformation Protestant scholars with Islamic philosophy, theology and the Sunni-Shi’a schism. He draws on previously unstudied dissertations and disputations by primarily Lutheran scholars to broaden the conventional interpretation of the Reformation beyond a solely European Christian phenomenon and to open up new directions for future research. His book, Mustafa Sabri Efendi, is a study of the life and writings of Mustafa Sabri Efendi (d.1954), the chief jurist of the Ottoman Empire, and was published in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country​.

Before coming to the University of Rochester, Karabela taught at Queen’s University in Canada. He has taught courses on Islam in the modern world, religion and democracy, political theology, religion and politics in Muslim societies as well as advanced seminars such as the European perception of Jews and Muslims during the Enlightenment and multiculturalism in the Ottoman Empire.

In collaboration with global partners, Karabela has produced artistic works inspired by historical events and religious concepts. As the director of the Canadian Institute for Multicultural Diplomacy, he oversees multiple projects on artistic expression from diverse cultures and religious traditions. He also leads a multimedia project about the spiritual journeys of a Christian monk and a Muslim dervish as well as a documentary on the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.

Selected Publications

Books

• Islamic Thought Through Protestant Eyes. New York: Routledge, 2022, (paperback). Shortlisted for the Reformation Research Consortium (REFORC) Book Award; Reviewed in: Renaissance and Reformation, Global Intellectual History, The Seventeenth Century, Lutheran Quarterly, Studies in Religion, Reading Religion, International Journal of the Asian Philosophical Association, The New Arab
• Mustafa Sabri Efendi, Surabaya: Opsi Press, 2021

Book Chapters and Journal Articles

• “Islam and Protestantism” in A Global Sourcebook in Protestant Political Thought, 1517–1914, eds. Matthew Rowley and Marietta van der Tol. New York: Routledge, 2024
• “What is Political about Political Islam?” in Political Theology on Edge: Ruptures of Justice and Belief in the Anthropocene, eds. Catherine Keller and Clayton Crockett. New York: Fordham University Press, 2021
• “Ibrahim al-Haydari and His al-Sirat al-Mustaqim” in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, ed. David Thomas. Leiden: Brill, 2021
• “Lovers in the Age of the Beloveds: The Classical Ottoman Divan Literature and the Dialectical Tradition” in Beloved: Love and Languishing in Middle Eastern Literatures and Cultures, eds. Michael Beard & Alireza Korangy. London: I.B. Tauris, 2018
• “Ibn al-Rawandi” in Oxford Encyclopaedia of Islam, Philosophy, Science and Technology, ed. Ibrahim Kalin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014
• “The Dialectical Discourse in Classical Ottoman Literature: The Beloved between Lover and Rival in the Game of Love”, The Journal of Turkish Literature 10 (2013): 7-19
• “Beşir Fuad and His Opponents: The Form of a Debate over Literature and Truth in Nineteenth-Century Istanbul”, The Journal of Turkish Literature 8 (2011): 96-106

Reviews in Peer-Reviewed Journals

• “Islamist Thinkers in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic”, Insight Turkey 19/1 (2017): 225-227
• “Before and After Muhammad: The First Millennium Refocused”, Studies in Religion 44/2 (2015): 288-290
• “To Carl Schmitt: Letters and Reflections by Jacob Taubes”, Canadian Philosophical Review 54/2 (2015): 380-382
• “The Art of Dialectic between Dialogue and Rhetoric: The Aristotelian Tradition”, Journal of the History of Philosophy 52/4 (2014): 841-842
• “Archives and the Event of God: The Impact of Michel Foucault on Philosophical Theology”, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 51/1 (2012): 173-176
• “The Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam”, Philosophy East and West 62/4 (2012): 605-608

Teaching

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• History of Islam
• Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Spain
• Classics of Islamic Civilization
• Introduction to Quran
• Religion and Politics in the Middle East
• The Protestant Reformation and Islam