Erbakan, Necmettin - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Hale, William
Leiden
Brill
(1,015 words)
Necmettin Erbakan (1926-2011), a Turkish politician, founded the country's first electorally successful pro-Islamist party. Born in 1926, he was educated as a mechanical engineer, becoming a professor at Istanbul Technical University in 1965, and establishing a factory for the production of electric motors. He was elected chairman of the Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce in May 1969, but his election was overruled by the then prime minister, Süleyman Demirel (1924-2015). Erbakan responded by running as an independent candidate for Konya in the October 1969 general