The Teacher of Teachers, Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim, was born in 1926 in the town of Štip in Macedonia, which was once part of the Ottoman lands. He settled in Istanbul with his family in 1934. He continued the education he had started at the age of 5 in Macedonia at Fethiye Primary School in Fatih, Istanbul. He then attended Istanbul Vefa High School, graduating with distinction in 1943. With the aim of serving his country and nation better, he took the entrance exam of Mülkiye (Faculty of Political Science) and was admitted to Ankara University Faculty of Political Science. Graduating from this faculty in 1947, Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim served as a District Governor in various parts of our country. He later completed Ankara University Faculty of Law. In 1953, he stepped into academic life as a research assistant at Istanbul University Faculty of Economics. Until 1993, he served as a faculty member and head of department at Istanbul University Faculty of Economics.
In addition to his duties at Istanbul University, Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim worked as a visiting faculty member at Cornell University in the USA between 1955 and 1957. After his post in the USA, he taught economics for a period at the University of Munich in Germany. Between 1977 and 1979, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Middle East Technical University. Between 1980 and 1982, he taught at the Department of Socio-Technical Studies of the Faculty of Engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Between 1993 and 1998, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Sakarya University. Between 1998 and 2000, he was a member of YÖK (the Council of Higher Education). Between 2003 and 2004, he worked as the Founding Rector of the International University of Sarajevo. After 2006, he continued to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Balkan University in Skopje, Macedonia.
He was a founding partner and board member of Gümüş Motor (Pancar Motor), Turkey’s first private engine factory established in Istanbul, and served as a member of the first board of directors of the TÜMOSAN Engine Factory established by the state in Konya. He was also a founding member of the İlim Yayma Foundation and Society.
Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim married Ulya Hanım on 10 September 1959 and had 5 children. Prof. Dr. Sabahattin Zaim passed away at the age of 81 on 10 December 2007, on a Sunday morning at 04.15, and was laid to rest in the family cemetery at Edirnekapı Cemetery.
As a token of loyalty, the İlim Yayma Foundation, of which he was a founding trustee, gave the name of Sabahattin Zaim, a distinguished scholar raised by our country, to the university it founded.
We remember our teacher with mercy.