Darko Tanasković, born on 4 January 1948 in Zagreb.

He finished classical (eight-year) secondary school in Belgrade (1996). At the Faculty of Philology, also in Belgrade, he graduated in Oriental Philology (1970), received the M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1979), with the thesis “Arabian Language in the Modern-day Tunisia―Diglosy and Bilinguism”, at the same faculty, where he was elected assistant-apprentice at the Department of Oriental Philology (1971). As a docent (1980), associate professor (1981) and, beginning with 1988, ordinary professor at the same department, he taught and teaches several subjects (Arabic Language, Turkish Language, Introduction to Oriental Philology, Persian Literature, Foundations of Islamic Civilization, and on graduate studies Introduction to Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages and Linguistical Arabistics). He published over 600 scientific and expert papers from the field of Oriental Studies in the broad sense of the term, among others following books: Arapska poezija (1977), Sufizam (in collaboration with I. Šop),  Arapski jezik u savremenom Tunisu (1982), Kontrastivna analiza arapskog i srpskohrvatskog jezika (1982),  U dijalogu s islamom (1992), Tursko-srpski rečnik (in co-authorship with S. Đinđić and M. Teodosijević, 1997), Na Istoku Zapada (in collaboration with M. Jevtić, 2000, two editions), Islam i mi (2000, three editions), Jugoistok Srbije. Kontinuitet krize i mogući ishodi (a group of authors, 2001), Gramatika arapskog jezika (in collaboration with A. Mitrović, Beograd, 2005). Several of his papers were published in foreign languages.

Darko Tanasković has, on invitation, taught at the universities of Sarajevo and Skopje, as well as at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales―EHESS in Paris (1984); from 1990 he is a member of the Executive Committee of Université Euro-Arabe Itinérante based in Rome, and in 1995 he was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Academia Scientiarum Et Artium Europea―Salzburg). He is a corresponding member of the Turkish Language Association (Türk Dil Kurumu) based in Ankara (2000). He was a guest professor at several universities in the country and abroad, and has held many public lectures in the domain of Oriental and Islamic Studies. From 1999 he is lecturing at the University of Applied Sciences "Megatrend", and also from 2008 at the Academy for Diplomacy and Security (Belgrade). An associate of the Belgrade Opened School (BOŠ) and the Institute for Geopolitical Studies (Belgrade). A professor on invitation at the ECPD University of UN in Belgrade (from 2007). He is a member of the Association of Literary Translators of Serbia, the Association of Writers of Serbia and Serbian PEN-club.

During his university career Darko Tanasković has been, among other things, the director of the Department of Oriental Studies, the Vice-Dean, the president of the Council and the Managing Board of the Faculty of Philology, a member of the Commission for Matricity and the Managing Board of the University of Belgrade, as well as the president of the Board for Humanistic Sciences at the Community, i. e. the Ministry of Science of Serbia. He was a member of the Managing Board of the Institute of Literature and Art in Belgrade, the Managing Board of the Water Polo Federation of Serbia, the Managing Board of SKZ (Serbian Literary Community)

From 1995 to 1999 he held the office of the ambassador of FRY in Turkey (1998-1999) and Azerbaijan. Appointed, in March 2001, a member of the Yugoslav Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Between 2002 and 2008 Darko Tanasković held the office of the special and empowered ambassador of FRY before the Holy See (in Vatican) and before the Knights of Malta. Pope John Paul II awarded him (in October 2004) the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX and the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta (in October 2005) with the Grand Cross for Military Merits.

He speaks French, English, Arabian, Turkish, Italian and Russian language, and is familiar with Latin and Ancient Greek. Darko Tanasković is married and is the father of three children.