Walter M. Weiss, born 1961 in Vienna, Austria, read history, journalism and political science at Vienna university. Editor-in-Chief of several publications, he has travelled extensively worldwide, especially in North Africa, as well as the Middle East. He has been a freelance author since 1993, specialising in the subject of Islamic countries, Central European arts and culture and, more recently, in (South-)East Asia. His work has been published among others by GEO, Die Zeit, Merian, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Weltwoche. Amongst the approx. 80 books, he has published so far, are Crash Course Islam, Der Basar / The bazaar (1994/1998), books about Austria, Egypt, Morocco, United Arab Emirates and Oman resp. about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as, in German, books on Bhutan, Burma, China, Vietnam, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Vienna, Venice, Prague, Salzburg, Beijing, Shanghai and many others.
Since 2009 he is also regularly accompanying select tourist groups as a lecturer through Iran and Morocco.