P.S. (Sjoerd) van Koningsveld

P.S. (Sjoerd) van Koningsveld

Prof. Dr. (1943) is head of the Department of History of Religions of Leiden University, the Netherlands, where he holds the chair of Islamic Studies. He studied Semitic Languages (with Arabic) as well as Law in Amsterdam, defending his Ph.D.-thesis (1976) on Latin and Arabic manuscripts from the medieval Iberian Peninsula in Leiden (1976). The main focus of his research and publications is the study of Islam and Muslims in the Western world, both historically and contemporarily. His historical publications deal, among others, with the study of Arabic manuscripts, with medieval Muslim Spain and Muslim-European relations during the late Middle Ages. His works on contemporary Islam in Europe deal, among others, with the development of modern Islamic thought concerning the life of Muslims in secular democratic societies, with the development of a European jurisprudence concerning Islam and with the mergence of a Western European Islamic literature.