Dr Jürgen Wasim Frembgen   is Adjunct Professor emeritus at the Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich; he retired as senior curator (Hauptkonservator) at the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich. He taught Cultural and Social Anthropology as well as Islamic Studies at different universities in Germany and Austria. He has written extensively on the cultures of the Eastern Muslim World between Iran and India, focusing primarily on Pakistan. Since 1981 he conducts ethnographic fieldwork in the Karakoram, Indus Kohistan, Punjab, and Sindh. In addition, he has been a visiting professor at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad (National Institute of Pakistan Studies), National College of Arts in Lahore, and Ohio State University in Columbus, USA.

Dr Frembgen has more than 180 English and German language publications to his credit. Many of his books and articles deal with Islam, Sufism, veneration of Muslim saints, arts and material culture, anthropology of the body, social outsiders, and facets of popular culture. He has also curated numerous exhibitions dealing with cultures of the Muslim world. In 2011, he was awarded the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan for his distinguished merits in the field of science and literature.