On 13th October 2021 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences hosted the public defense of the dissertation of Zoltán Szombathy (researcher at the Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies), titled Az iszlám Fekete-Afrikában [Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa]) and submitted in partial fulfilment of the conditions of the degree of DSc. Owing to regulations in force because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the event took place online and was joined in this manner by the faculty of the Avicenna Institute. After a detailed discussion of a variety of questions raised with regard to the dissertation, the committee made its final deliberations and recommended the conferring of the degree of DSc to Zoltán Szombathy.