Academic career

• Islamic Studies (Arabic and Persian), Indology (Sanskrit) and Modern French Literature at the Universities of Berne and Lausanne.
• Long term stays in the Near East (Damascus and Teheran; together 3 years); in this context preparation of a doctoral thesis on Muhammad’s ascension to heaven (PhD 1999).
• Catalogue of the manuscripts in Arabic script, Zentralbibliothek Zurich (project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation).
• Postdoctoral thesis (PDF, 229 KB) on Demonology in the Islamic world. This thesis is partially based on material gathered by Fritz Meier (1912–1998) and now held by the Universitätsbibliothek Basel (project financed by the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft and the Swiss National Science Foundation). 
• Teaching obligations at the Universities of Lausanne, Basel and Zurich.
• Temporary professorship, Arabic Studies, University of Geneva (Fall 2012)

• Religious phenomena in the Islamic worldReligiöse Phänomene im Bereich des Islams
• Arabic and Persian literature (classical and modern)
• Codicology in Arabic script
• Persian studies generally speaking

Recently published:

Devotion and protection in Islam. Brill, Leiden, 2020.

Open access: Download
Project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
For a short abstract of this project please click here (PDF, 358 KB).

For further information please consult our Commented teaching index (PDF, 43 KB).

Publication list (PDF, 48 KB)