Born in Istanbul (1960), Cengiz Kallek graduated from Boğaziçi University, College of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Management (1982). While working for the General Directorate of TDV (Turkish Religious Foundation) Encyclopaedia of Islam, he received his MA degree in Islamic Law (1989) and PhD degree in History of Economics, both from Marmara University, Institute of Social Sciences.

He served as an assistant professor for the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), College of Economics and Management Sciences, Department of Economics (1994-96), and as an associate professor for the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), Malaysia (1997-99). After his return to Turkey, he served as Vice President of the Centre for Islamic Studies, Turkish Religious Foundation. In the meantime, he gave lectures as a part-timer at Fatih University (2000-2010). He joined the academic staff of Istanbul Şehir University, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History (2010). He held the administrative offices of the president, the dean and the chair of the same university (2015-17), college and department (2010-13) respectively. Now he is at Marmara University, Islamic Economics and Finance Institute (August 2020-)

He is affiliated with several non-profit organizations, based in Istanbul, either as a member of the advisory committees of the Foundation for Sciences and Arts (BİSAV, 1999-), Turkish Entrepreneurship and Bussiness Ethics Association (İGİAD, 2006-) and Research Centre for Islamic Economics (İKAM, 2011-) or as a member of the establishment committee of the Foundation for Research in Islamic Sciences (İSAV, 2016-).

His graduate thesis (The State and Market in the Period of the Prophet, Istanbul: Foundation for Sciences and Arts, 1992) and his doctorate dissertation (The Polity-Market Relations in Early Islam: 622-661, Istanbul: Iz Yayınları, 1997; Social Wealth: the Polity-Market Relations in Islam, Istanbul: Klasik Yayınları, 2015, 2018), his book entitled History of Islamic Economic Thought: Works on Public Finance (Istanbul: Klasik Yayınları, 2004, 2015, 2018) has been published, in addition to which several articles and over a hundred and sixty entries on Islamic law, history, economics, political science, metrology, etc. in Turkish, English and Arabic, are issued in several local and international journals and encyclopaedias.