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Dr. Hee Soo LEE is currently Professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology of Hanyang University and the Director of the University Museum. A well-known anthropologist of Islamic studies in Korea, he completed his BA and MA degrees at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul and Ph.D. at Istanbul University, Turkey. He has conducted extensive field work in such Muslim countries as Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia and Uzbekistan since 1979. He served as president of the Korean Association of Middle East Studies for 2008-2009 and director of Korea Institute of Islamic Culture. He conducted research on Islamic-Middle East issues at such institutes as CERES (Tunisia), IRCICA (Istanbul), Maramara University (Turkey). He also pursued research at the University of Washington in 2012 and University of Vienna in 2014 where he was a visiting professor. In addition, he serves as the secretary general of the Korea-Turkey Friendship Association. His book entitled ISLAM sold more than 230,000 copies. He is also author of Islam and Korean Culture, Turkish History, and Islamic Culture.
1,500 Years of Contact between Korea and the Middle East
Islamic history in Korea and Korea-Middle East relations predate the Korean War by more than a millennium. Yet, many Koreans are not aware of this long history of cultural and commercial interaction. Furthermore, there are widespread misconceptions in Korea about the Middle East and aspects of Islam.
