About Us

The Publishing Concept

Vakar Yayınları is a publishing house primarily dedicated to the reproduction and preservation of Ottoman literature. Our focus lies especially on theological literature from the Ottoman Empire, which is distinguished not only by its wealth of high-quality translations of significant standard works from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish, but also by a multitude of original works—many of which represent commentaries or glosses on these important works of Islamic theology.

Another core aspect of our work is the reproduction of significant editions from the Ottoman era, with the goal of making them accessible to a wider readership. Currently, we are witnessing an increasing commercialization of Islamic publishing, which has considerably compromised the quality of manuscript editions. This trend has led to a renewed appreciation of Ottoman-era editions, which often exhibit outstanding quality—due in large part to the strict governmental review processes that theological publications were subject to at the time.

In addition to theological works, we also aim to reproduce selected historical, epic, and lyrical literature written in Ottoman Turkish. In addition to this general concept, our publishing house also publishes the works of our founder, Harun Reşid Acaroğlu, on Islamic prayer times and their calculation.

 

Founder Profile

Our publishing house was founded in January 2025 by Harun Reşid Acaroğlu, an interdisciplinary scientist with doctoral degrees in both theoretical particle physics and Islamic theology.

Acaroğlu completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, which included a research stay at the University of California, San Diego. During his PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Acaroğlu investigated the phenomenology of flavoured dark matter models, with a particular focus on their potential to explain certain anomalies in high-energy physics. His work has been recognized through several peer-reviewed publications, presentations at leading international conferences, and a research stay at the University of Oxford.

In addition to his work in physics, Acaroğlu also earned a PhD in Islamic theology from the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he conducted a holistic study of the theological and astronomical aspects of Islamic prayer times. Complementing this academic background in theology, Acaroğlu also received a classical education at a Turkish madrasa that follows the late-Ottoman curriculum—demonstrating his deep grounding in traditional Islamic theology.