Elyor Karimov
Elyor E. Karimov (, , Karimov, Ė. Ė. (Ėlʹër Ėrikovich); born ) is an Uzbekistani orientalist and scholar of Islamic, Central Eurasian Studies and Diplomatics. Academic career. Elyor Karimov graduated from the Tashkent State University (Faculty of Oriental Studies) in 1986. He is a holder of a graduate degree in History and Area Studies (1986) and Ph.D. (1990) in Medieval History ('"Role, place and social positions of clergy of Maverannahr in 15th century") and a Habilitation/Postdoctoral Studies (1998) in History of Islam in Central Asia (""Sufi tariqats" in Central Asia of 12th – 15th centuries"). Since 1986 Karimov has worked in  the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. He has been head of Department of Medieval History at the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan since 1998. He was elected a chairman of Uzbek National Society of Young Scholars in 1999. He received a residential fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2009. Elyor Karimov has collaborated with UNESCO since 1996 when he was awarded the Hirayama/UNESCO Silk Roads Fellowship. Karimov participated at the International Symposium on the Silk Roads in Xi’an (China), organized on the occasion of the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage and the 30th anniversary  of the World Heritage Convention organized by UNESCO in November 2002. Elyor Karimov one of the authors of multi-volume History of Civilizations of Central Asia, published by UNESCO, member of the annual “"Сolloque international Soufisme, Culture et Musique ‘‘les Routes de la Foi’’", founded by UNESCO in Algeria from 2005. He is a Member of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register Sub-Committee from 2014 (located in UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France). Karimov is formally affiliated with the Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, but is effectively an independent scholar, living most of the time in the  United Arab Emirates. He is a Professor of the Middle East and Central Asia at the Hofstra University (United States) since 2017. Elyor Karimov is an expert in the History of Civilization and Culture in Central Asia and the Middle East with numerous research publications in this field. His research is unique in that he uses both written and oral sources and combines approaches, which lie at the intersection of history, religious studies, and anthropology. His knowledge of Persian and Chaghatai has positioned him well for critically assessing the study of social history in Islamic Central Asia. His publications in  English, Uzbek, and Russian address a spectrum of themes: Islam in early modern Central Asia; elucidation of legal documents from qazi courts; studies of contemporary shrines and their keepers; a social history of women and family in Central Asia.