During his time at Jena University he co-ordinated the 'Oriental Coin Cabinet' and the 'Alphons-Stübel Collection of Middle Eastern Photographs (1850–1890)'.
2009–2011 he taught as Professor of Islamic History and Artistic and Material Culture at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City and between 2010 and 2011 he served as Associate Curator of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
[1] His studies focus on political and economic history, material culture and numismatics of the Islamic World from Mongolia to northern Africa in the pre-modern period.
Historical studies focus in their majority on Syria and northern Mesopotamia from the 7th to the 16th century.
Co-operation with several archaeological missions especially in Syria among them at the citadels in Aleppo, Damascus and Masyaf, urban sites such as Raqqa, and Kharab Sayyar, but also in Portugal, Mongolia, and Afghanistan Balkh.