Arzu Terzi graduated from the History department of the Istanbul University school of Fine Arts in 1989. She began her career as an academic in the same year as a research assistant at the Department of History of Ottoman Institutions and Civilization. She earned her masters degree in 1998. Her dissertation was published by the Turkish Historical Society in 2000. She is currently a lecturer at Istanbul University Arts Faculty History Department and gives lectures both at home and abroad, in addition to publishing many articles.