Dr. Christoph Marcinkowski is a German scholar working interdisciplinary in Islamic and Middle Eastern, as well as Southeast Asian and Security Studies. Since September 2008 he is a Principal Research Fellow at IAIS Malaysia, as well as Associate Editor of its journal Islam and Civilisational Renewal. He holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Civilisation from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC, 1998), and an M.A. in Iranian Studies, Islamic Studies, and Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, Germany (1993). He spent some years of research in several countries of the Middle East. From 2001–2004 he served as Associate Professor of Islamic History at ISTAC.

Current Projects address issues of interfaith dialogue, reflected in his monograph Islam in Europe: Reflections on Present Trends and Future Challenges (IAIS Occasional Paper); future strategies for multi-cultural and multi-religious societies in Asia and Europe; as well as Muslim-Catholic dialogue and European identity.

Marcinkowski is an award-winning writer whose study Mīrzā Rafī‘ā’s Dastūr al-Mulūk is a notable reference work in Iranian and Islamic Studies. He has held Visiting Fellowships at: the Institute for Iranian Studies, Columbia University – New York City (2004–2005) on Encyclopedia Iranica’s editorial team. From 2006–2007 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS–Singapore) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). From May 2007–August 2009 he served as Senior Research Fellow at The Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) at the University of Malaya, teaching graduate courses on multiculturalism and regional integration.

Publications include ten authored or edited books, including

• Mirza Rafi‘a's Dastur al-Muluk: A Manual of Later Safavid Administration. Annotated English Translation, Comments on the Offices and Services, and Facsimile of the Unique Persian Manuscript.  Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 2002.
• (Ed.) The Islamic World and the West: Managing Religious and Cultural Identities in the Age of Globalization, Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology 24, General Editor: Christian Giordano. Zurich etc.: LIT Verlag; and Kuala Lumpur: The Asia-Europe Institute in the University of Malaya, 2009.

and about 100 Articles, including

• “Selected Historical Facets of the Presence of Shi’ism in Southeast Asia.” The Muslim World (Hartford CT, United States), vol. 99, no. 2 (April 2009) pp. 381–416.
  “Persian Presence in Islamic Communities of Southeast Asia,” in: Encyclopedia Iranica, ed. by Professor Ehsan Yarshater (New York City: Columbia University, 2006), forthcoming in print.