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Knut Vikør

Norwegian historian and university professor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 30, 2025
Entity authorityQ11981361 ↗
Source-derived summary

Knut Sigurdson Vikør (born June 10, 1952) is a Norwegian historian and a professor of history at the University of Bergen. He is known for his studies on the history of Islam and Islamic law.

Biography

Knut S. Vikør comes from a family of teachers whose father was an associate professor at Orkdal national gymnasium. Born on June 10, 1952, Vikør holds a master's in history and earned his PhD from the University of Bergen in 1992.

Vikør was general manager of the Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Bergen from 1988 to 2002 when he was granted leave to work as an associate professor at the Department of History of the same university.

In 2005, Vikør was appointed associate professor at the institute, and is now serving as a professor at the Department of Archeology, History, Cultural and Religious Studies at the University of Bergen.

Bibliography

Besides his academic dissertations, Vikør has written several books aimed at general public. His books include:

Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood (Northwestern University Press, 1995)

The Exoteric Ahmad Ibn Idrīs.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Knut Vikør” is norwegian historian and university professor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Knut, Vikør and Norwegian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1952, 1992, 1988, 2002—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1952-06-10, 1952-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Knut, Vikør and Norwegian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “norwegian historian and university professor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q11981361. VIAF identifies the subject as 166847667. The Library of Congress control number is n94047622. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952, 1992, 1988 and 2002.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Knut Vikør”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Knut Vikør primary sources, Knut Vikør archive and Knut research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Knut Vikør”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Knut Vikør” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.