Muhammed Bakheet (Muḥammad Bakhīt) (محمد بخيت) began teaching at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) as a lecturer in 1984, and was promoted to full professorship in 2015. He spent his entire academic career at IUG, where he also held many administrative posts, including Dean of the College of Fundamentals of Religion, Chair of the Doctrine Division and Supervisor of Graduate Studies. Bakheet completed his PhD in 1997 in Islamic Doctrine at the University of the Holy Quran in Sudan. In Sudan also is where he had received an MA in Islamic Doctrine in 1988, from Um Durman Islamic University, five years after a BA in Fundamentals of Religion in Riyad, Saudi Arabia. 

Bakheet supervised a fair number of theses and dissertations and was a discussant for many others. In 2012, the IUG was the first university in Gaza to offer a doctorate, and which happened to be in Islamic doctrine, Dr. Bakheet’s specialization. Much of the record of his academic career— his education, positions held at the university, scholarship, and professional organization he joined— can be found on the Arabic-language platform, al-minassah al-`iqdiyya, where his name is listed as Mohammad Mohsin Mahdi, but is corrected in his accompanying curriculum vita. The record shows an accomplished scholar who authored many books, with one refereed volume titled, Past and Present Sects in Islamic History that went through four printings. Besides his books, he published numerous articles in Arabic, ten of which were refereed, including “The Influence of Hermeneutics on the Formation of Islamic Sects” and “A Critical Study in the Abyssinian Doctrine.” 

Bakheet was also an active professional, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Islamic Studies, issued by IUG itself. He was a member of several professional associations including Ahlusunna (House and Companions of the Prophet Society) and a founding member of Palestine Scholars League. 

Bakheet’s home in Gaza City was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the Israeli invasion on 2 November 2023, and he and his entire family were slain as a result. He was 64 years old at the time of his death. One of his students, Nour Alhila, posted a note of appreciation on X that said, “May God bless him, I took several courses with him; he was the finest of teachers and of the highest moral standards.”

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