Born 1961; 1981-86 pursued Arabic and Islamic studies; 1989 PhD; 1997 Assistant Professor and 2003 Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, University of Toronto; since 2007 Professor and Chais of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Göttingen.
Born 1985; pursued German, Arabic and French studies; 2015 PhD; currently postdoctoral researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre 1136 "Education and Religion" at the University of Göttingen.