Roman Loimeier (born 1957) studied Anthropology and African studies at the University of Freiburg and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London from 1978-1984. He did his second degree  (1984-1990) in Islamic studies at the University of Bayreuth. 1985-2005 he was researcher, assistant and senior assistant in the faculty for Islamic studies at University Bayreuth. He was teaching at the University of Leipzig, Bamberg and Wien. Between 2004 and 2011 he was visiting Professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. From 2006 - 2007 he was Research Fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. 2008/2009 he was assistant Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Since 2009 he is Professor for Anthropology (regional focus on East-Africa) at the University of Göttingen. Since 1981 he conducted several Research- and Fieldtrips to Senegal, Nigeria and Zanzibar/Tanzania, shorter fieldtrips were conducted to Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey and Syria. His monographs among others are Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology (in print); Eine Zeitlandschaft in der Globalisierung: Das islamische Sansibar im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert, 2012; Between Social Skills and Marketable Skills: The Politics of Islamic Eduacation in Zanzibar in the 20^th century, 2009; Säkularer Staat und Islamische Gesellschaft - Die Beziehungen zwischen Staat, Sufi-Bruderschaften und Islamischer Reformbewegung in Senegal im 20. Jahrhundert, 2001; Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria, 1997. Since 2008 he is section editor for Encyclopaedia of Islam (3^rd edition) for the section: Sub-Saharan Africa.