Nihat Hatipoğlu

Nihat Hatipoğlu (full name Mehmet Nihat Hatipoğlu) is a Turkish theologian, academic and television presenter, born in Hazro, Diyarbakır, on 11 May 1955. A professor of hadith, he served as founding rector of Gaziantep Islam Science and Technology University from 2019 to 2023, and is known to a mass audience for the Ramadan religious programmes he has presented on Turkish television for two decades. ^{1 2}

Hatipoğlu was born in Hazro, the son of Haydar and Muzaffer Hatipoğlu, and completed his primary schooling in Siirt and Malatya. In 1975 he graduated from both Uşak Imam Hatip High School and Uşak High School, and in 1981 from the Faculty of Theology at Ankara University. At the same faculty he took his doctorate in the hadith department with a study of the role of hadith in understanding the Qur'an, became associate professor in 2000 and full professor in 2012. In 1985–1987 he studied Arabic in Egypt. ¹

Hatipoğlu taught in the hadith department of Dicle University's theology faculty and served as an expert on the Religious Affairs High Council of the Diyanet. On 11 March 2017 he was appointed to the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). On 18 January 2019 President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed him founding rector of the newly established Gaziantep Islam Science and Technology University; he left the post in March 2023. ¹

His television career began with five years of programmes on Kanal A; he presented Ramadan sahur programmes on Flash TV in 2004 and Star TV in 2005, then Star TV's Dosta Doğru and its Ramadan iftar and sahur programmes from 2005 to 2010. His weekly programmes continue on ATV, his programmes are syndicated to many Turkish radio stations, and he gives conference series in Turkey and abroad. His articles have appeared in many magazines. ¹

This section sets out episodes as reported in the sources; it is not a verdict by the museum. In 2014 claims circulated that Hatipoğlu received 600,000 lira a month from ATV and lived in a villa with a pool; he denied both, saying he had lived in the same house in Keçiören for twenty years. The same year the Atheism Association filed a criminal complaint over a remark he made on air about atheists; the prosecutor's office dismissed the case, finding the remarks addressed ideas rather than persons. In May 2019 his on-air conversion of a 13-year-old Armenian Christian boy during an iftar programme drew criticism over child rights; he said the family had given permission, while the family said the boy had stopped by the outdoor programme with friends to eat. In March 2021 it emerged that, as rector, he was simultaneously acting dean of his university's four faculties, which was reported critically in the press. ¹

His many books include İnsanlığın Geleceği ve İslam (1988), İslami Davetin İlkeleri (1988), Kur'an-ı Kerim'in Anlaşılmasında Hadislerin Rolü (1999), Hz. Peygamberle İslam'ı Doğru Anlamak (2006), Dört Halife (2010), Allah'ı Bildiğimi Sanırdım (2011) and Hz. Peygamber ile Kur'an'ı Doğru Anlamak (2015). ¹

• Turkish Wikipedia, "Nihat Hatipoğlu", as read on 4 November 2026. ¹
• English Wikipedia, "Nihat Hatipoğlu", as read on 4 November 2026. ²