Valdai Club

Head of the Centre for Central Asian, Caucasian and Volga-Urals Studies in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2009).

 Previous positions: researcher, Oriental Studies Department of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, Makhachkala (1992); senior fellow, Middle East Studies Department, Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg Branch (1993-1999) and Centre for Arab Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow (since 1999). Research interests: Classical issues : source studies and historiography of Islam in 7-14th centuries; Islamic Studies; history of Islam; Medieval Arabic Epigraphy and Paleography; Muslim manuscript tradition in the Caucasus; history of the Caucasus in the 7-13th centuries. Contemporary issues : modern ethno-political and religious processes in Central Asia and the Caucasus, political Islam.