After studying Marx and Engels' opinions about eastern societies, Kemal Tahir worked on historical theories of historians and sociologists like Ömer Lütfi Barkan, Mustafa Akdağ, Halil İnalcık, Niyazi Berkes and Şerif Mardin.
The Institute of Islamic Studies has had numerous famous faculty members, including, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Toshihiko Izutsu, Niyazi Berkes, Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker, Fazlur Rahman Malik, Issa J. Boullata, Sajida Alvi, and Wael Hallaq.