Grigorios D. Ziakas

Grigoris D. Ziakas was born in Pefko, Grammos, and is an emeritus professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He studied theology and philology at the same university and pursued postgraduate studies in the history of religions and cultures at the Universities of Vienna and Marburg in Germany. He served as an assistant, lecturer, and professor of religious studies at the Faculty of Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He also taught at the Department of History and Ethnology and the Department of Languages, Literature, and Culture of the Black Sea Countries at Democritus University of Thrace. Additionally, he was a visiting professor at the Universities of Leuven in Belgium and Amman in Jordan. He has authored numerous treatises, studies, and articles on the religions and cultures of prehistoric societies and ancient peoples, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, and the Religions of Tibet. He has focused particularly on Islam and the history of the Islamic world, writing many books and articles on the subject. His notable literary contributions include works on the transmission of Greek letters and Aristotelian thought to the Arabic tradition, as well as on Islamic mysticism and the poet Maulana Jalaladdin Rumi and his teachings. He is a founding member of the Society for Graeco-Arabic Studies and its scientific-journalistic organ, Graeco-Arabica (Thessaloniki, 1981). He is also a founding member and president of the Society for Culture and Social Development of Macedonia-Thrace (Thessaloniki). He is a member of the Institute for Interreligious Studies: Interreligiose Arbeitstelle (INTROA) in Nachrodt-Iserlohn, Germany, and a scientific advisor to its scientific-journalistic organ of the same name. He is a member of the Conference of European Churches and the "Islam in Europe Committee" (Geneva), as well as the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Theologie E.V. (Germany). He has participated in numerous religious studies conferences and interfaith dialogues.