Krzysztof Kościelniak

Expert activities: among others, the Congress of EPP Group in the European Parliament in Venice, Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (Qatar),Al-Rai Center for Studies, Jordan Europe Business Association, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Malaysia (Islamic Science University of Malaysia), Singapore (10th International Conference on Language Literature, Culture and Education 2018) and Seville (World Congress on Middle Eastern Studies 2018). He delivered ca. 120 scientific papers and has given many interviews.

- the condition of the Muslim states, contemporary Islam and the Muslim minorities (Models of modernization of Islam in a dynamic context, the processes of democratization in today's Islamic world, elements of democracy in the Islamic world, the attempts of the separation of religion and state, Christian and Muslim perceptions of secularization its practical application in the Muslim countries and the economic consequences of the 'Arab Spring' (2011-2013) in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Libya, sources of the ideological success of Russia in the Syrian Civil War, external and internal prospects for ending Syria’s civil war, cultural, and ethnic diversities of Muslim immigrants in Poland in the period of 1989-2014, perspectives and challenges of migration of Muslims to Europe, the Muslim-Hindu relations after the establishment of Bharatiya Janata Party(India), Muslim Uighur community in China, the life of Afaq Khoja (1626-1694) in the historical context and the polemics about his role within the Uighur community).

Member of the Association of European Arabists and Islamicists (L'Union Europeene des Arabisants st Islamisants – UEAI); the Committee of Oriental Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, (2011-2014, the member of the presidium of this committee); the Committee on Byzantine of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Scientific Society of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania; the Association of the Fundamental Theologians in Poland and the Polish Theological Society in Kraków (both the Theological Commission and the Historical Commission), the John Paul II Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Kraków.

- Islam and Christianity - interactions and dialogue (the influence of Biblical demonology on the Quranic concepts of Satan in the context of the interaction of Ancient religions, apocryphal tradition in the Quranic demonology, Muslim tradition in the background of the Christian-Islamic acculturation from the 7th to the 10th centuries, the origin, history and meaning of the New Testament borrowings in the hadiths, the interaction between the Qur'an and pre-Islamic Polytheistic and Christian beliefs, the Old and New Testament elements in the Qur'an, Christian influences on some Muslim interpretations of al-ʿArāf ('the Muslim purgatory') and early Christian (Patristic) elements in the Qur'an, the differences between Islam and Christianity.

Pontifical Academy of Theology (since 2009 the John Paul II Pontifical University in Kraków): since 1994, a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage, Faculty of Social Sciences). Assistant Professor (2001-2009) and Full Professor at the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage (2009-2011). He held many positions, founder and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal 'Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia' (2009-2012), the series of Oriental sources and monographs, he organized several student summer schools in Syria.

Jagiellonian University: since 2005, a full professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies; since 2011, Head of the Department of the Middle East and North Africa, in 2012-2016, Head of the Institute of the Middle and Far East, (he contributed to the creation of Asian Studies), member of some commissions, organizer of several student summer schools in many Asian countries.

He studied at the Higher Theological Seminary of the Archdiocese of Kraków (1985-1991) and the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków (PAT; since 2009 the John Paul II Pontifical University – UPJPII), the second cycle of studies at the Faculty of Theology (1992). Further studies at: the Institute of Oriental Philology, Jagiellonian University (1995-1996), Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients, Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg, Germany (1996-1997), Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica – Arabic Study Centre Cairo, Egypt (1997-1998); Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies, Cairo, Egypt (1997-1998). Ph.D. (Religiology) in 1999 from the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Academy of Theology. Habilitation (postdoctoral dissertation) in the Humanities, History of the Orient, 2001, Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage (PAT). Research long-term stay in Syria (2002-2003), professorship in 2004/2005 (Full Professor) – Faculty of History, Jagiellonian University. Various research stays, including Syria (a dozen times in 2004-2011), Rome, French Polynesia, London, New Zealand. Studies of the Muslim minority in Xīnjiāng (China), Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat (southern Thailand) and Turkey. A lecturer at Fu Jen Catholic University and Tamkang University, Taipei (2016-2017). A lecturer at Caucasus International University (2018) in Tbilisi (Georgia), visiting professor at Imam Khomeini International University (2019) in Qazvin (Iran).

Krzysztof Kościelniak (born 7 August 1965 in Rabka, Poland) – a Catholic priest, full Professor of History (History of the Orient, Asian Studies, Islamic Studies, History of Religion, History of the Oriental Churches). Currently, a full professor at the Jagiellonian University, 1994-2021 the researcher and lecturer at the John Paul II Pontifical Academy (UPJPII) in Kraków and in the Seminary of the Pauline Fathers in Kraków.

- the Oriental Churches (Arab Christianity before Muhammad, and Christian Arabic literature before the rise of Islam The Christians in the Muslim world in the Middle Ages, the history of the Melkite Church (634-1516), the Maronite Church in the Middle East as a bridge between the East and the West, the contribution of Christian Maronites to the famous Organic Statute of Lebanon (Règlement) in 1861 and 1864 and statistical changes of Christians in Lebanon and Syria in the twentieth century. The changes of Coptic identity, the pluralism of the Catholic Church in Egypt, the condition of Christian minorities in Turkey and mariology in the East Syriac tradition.