Osman Bakar is currently Al-Ghazali Chair of Epistemology and Civilizational Studies and Renewal at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), and holds the honorific titles of Dato’ and Datuk, which were conferred upon him by HRH Sultan of Pahang and HM the King of Malaysia respectively. He was previously Distinguished Professor and Director of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam’s Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies and the Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia at Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Professor Bakar has been on the Muslim 500 since 2009, and is an award-winning author whose many books and articles have been translated into Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Italian Japanese, Chinese, Persian, Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu. His books include Classification of Knowledge in Islam (1992), Tawhid and Science (1992), and Al-Farabi: Life, Works and Significance (2018).
