Prof. Khaled Al-Karaki was born in AL- Karak in 1946. He earned a bachelor’s and master degree in Arabic Language and Literature from the University of Jordan in the years 1965 and 1977 respectively. He received a Ph.D. degree in Philosophy from the Faculty of Oriental Studies from Cambridge University in England in 1980.

Along with his teaching responsibilities, Professor Al-Karaki held many key and prestigious administrative positions at the University of Jordan and Jordan in general. He started working at the University of Jordan in 1980 as an assistant professor and was later promoted to associate professor in 1987, where he stayed until 1996. He was the Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Arts, editor of the cultural magazine and the Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Jordan. He became President of the Jordanian Writers' Association (1985- 1990), Minister of Culture and Youth; Minister of Culture and Information; Minister of Culture and Higher Education in successive cabinets (1989-1991), and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information (1995-1996), Advisor to His Majesty, Late King Hussein, Chief of the Royal Court, Chairman of Board of Directors of Jordan Press Foundation (Al-Rai Newspaper), Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Al-Albeit Foundation for Islamic Thought and between the years 1997-2000, he worked as an Arabic professor in the University of Petra.

 

In 2007 he was appointed as the president of the University of Jordan.

 

Professor Al-Karaki commenced his experience in the academic sphere at the University of Jordan. He also served as the President of Jerash Private University in 2001.

 

Professor Al-Karaki has taken part as an active member and chairman of numerous high-ranking committees, associations and councils, such as: the Jordanian Writers' Association, the Arab Association for Comparative Literature, Al-Albeit Foundation, the Higher Committee for Declaring Amman Capital for Arab Culture, the Committee for Preserving the Arabic Language, the Jordan Academy for Arabic, etc.
 
Professor Al-Karaki published many researches, studies and numerous articles relating to the field of Criticism, Poetry and Investigation and obtained many prestigious grants and awards.