Christoph U. Werner

Prof. Dr. Christoph U. Werner is the Chair of Iranian Studies at Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg since 2019, following his 12-year professorship at Marburg University (2007-2019) and previous academic roles. He specializes in Iranian Studies with focus areas in social history, legal institutions, Shiite religious structures, and Persophone literary history. As a

• Research Dean of Humanities and Cultural Studies (2023-2025)
• Managing Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies (2021-2025)
• President of Societas Iranologica Europaea (2019-2023)

, he leads major academic initiatives.

His research spans

• Qajar-era legal contracts
• Waqf (endowment) systems
• Persian-Ottoman-Georgian historical interconnections
• Manuscript studies of Persian documents

, often combining archival analysis with interdisciplinary approaches.

Recent publications focus on 20th-century Persian cultural politics, early modern Persian-Ottoman interactions, and legal epigraphy. He collaborates extensively with institutions like the University of Oxford's Invisible East and DFG Priority Programme Transottomanica. His editorial work includes

• Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (2022-)
• Persimone blog (2022-)
• Bamberg University Press publications

and multiple Iranian academic journals.