The Supreme Mufti was born on 15 September 1947, on the Kyibyshev collective farm in the Tiulkubassky District of the Yuzhno-Kazakhstanskaya region.
Biography:
In 1969, he graduated with distinction from the MO Auezov Yuzhno-Kazakhstansky State University. In 1975, Abdsattar Hadji Derbissali underwent postgraduate training at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Upon completion of his postgraduate studies, Derbissali began an internship at the Muhammad V Royal University (Morocco, 1975-1976) and later became a research scientist of the Institute of Literature and Arts of the Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan (1976-1977). He has worked as a teacher, senior teacher, assistant pro¬fessor, and vice-dean of the philological department at KazGU (1977-1985) as well as founder and supervisor of the chair of Oriental and Arabian philology at KazGU (1984-1997). Derbissali worked as an intern of the Az-Zaitun University (Tunisia, 1985-1986) and con¬ducted doctoral studies at the Institute of the Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1986-1988). In 1988, Derbissali was earned his Doctor of Letters degree and served as professor and fellow of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1996). Since 1990, Derbissali served as vice-President, and later Presi¬dent, of the Association of the Kazakh-Arabian Friendship of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Abdsattar Hadji Derbissali is one of the founders of the Kazakh School of the Arab Studies. In 1977, for the first time in Kazakhstan, he introduced study of the Arabic language in KazGU. He established the department of Oriental Studies and was its first dean (1989-1991). From 1991 to 1997, he held the office of Vice-Rector of Foreign Languages and International Affairs. He was the country’s first Doctor of Sciences, Professor and Academician in the field of Arab Studies.
Abdsattar Hadji Derbissali also organized the training of specialists in the Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Japanese, Chinese and Korean languages, in which there was a critical need in the Republic. On the whole, under his supervision, more than 400 specialists in Oriental Studies and two PhDs have been trained.
In 1997, at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, he pursued a career in the diplomatic service, where he served as a Counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a diplomatic rank of a First Class Counselor until 2000.
In June 2000, Derbissali was elected as Supreme Mufti and Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan at the third Kurultai of Muslims in the Central Asian nation. In 2005, at the Fourth Kurultai of Muslims of Kazakhstan, he was re-elected to this high and influential position. In 2007, he was elected Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Central Asia.
In August 2000, Derbissali was elected first deputy Chairman of the Eurasian Islamic Shura in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and was re-elected and headed the activities of that international organization April 2002. The Supreme Mufti has published more than 600 works dedicated to current issues of the Arabic language and literature, Arab-Kazakh literary links, the early history of the Kazakh literature, the history of Islam, the Holy Qur’an and the Hadith of the Prophet. He wrote a monograph on the history of Moroccan literature and researched the epigraphy of the mausoleum of Hodzh Ahmad Yasaui and translated it into his native language.
Derbissali has lectured at the Universities of Baghdad, Tokyo, Kashmir, Peshawar, Madrid and Columbia (New York) and participated in, and presented reports at, many different international forums including UN Conference (Seoul, 1995), UNESCO Congresses (Tashkent, 2000; Qatar, 2001), as well as events organized by the Universities and Academies of Sciences of Japan, India, Pakistan, China, Turkey, Yemen, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, Cyprus, Germany and the United States. In the summer of 2006, he presented his report at the Moscow Summit of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
Since 2000, the Mufti Council has published the newspaper “Islam and Civilization” and the magazine Iman. In 2006, he was awarded the Certificate of Honour of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, for his contribution to the promotion of the foreign policy. In 2007, he was decorated ‘For Contribution to the Development of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan’ by the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Abdsattar haji Derbissali strongly rejects uniting Islam with politics, and establishing political parties and various kinds of public movements based on religion. He is noted for his high level of religious culture, has an excellent command of the Arabic language and knows English, which is important for a spiritual leader in the modern world.