Warriors, Martyrs, and Dervishes grew out of my doctoral dissertation for the joint (cotutelle) doctoral program at Université de Paris 1 Panthéon–Sorbonne and Boğaziçi University in 2010. I benefited from the assistance and support of numerous individuals and institutions during the development of the dissertation and its evolution into a book.
My deepest gratitude goes to Michel Kaplan and Nevra Necipoğlu, my thesis supervisors, who guided, mentored, encouraged, and supported me with their wisdom, perfectionism, tact, and friendship. The comments and constructive criticism of the members of the thesis jury—Gilles Veinstein†, Elizabeth Zachariadou†, Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, and Derin Terzioğlu—helped pave the way to the present book.
I was fortunate to receive comments, guidance, suggestions, articles, advice, criticism, and encouragement from a number of colleagues and friends. Among them, I warmly acknowledge Ilias Anagnostakis, Marie-France Auzépy, Zeynep Aydoğan, Michel Balard, André Binggeli, Marie-Hélène Blanchet, Pierre Chuvin†, Buket Coşkuner, Ali Çiftçi, Yaman Dalanay, Melek Delilbaşı, Olivier Delouis, Vincent Déroche, Paul Dumont, Koray Durak, Anthony Greenwood, Zoe Griffith, David Durand-Guédy, Gülden Güneri, John Haldon, Tamer İlbuga, Ahmet İnsel, Cemal Kafadar, Vangelis Kechriotis†, Elif Keser, George Kiourtzian, Denise Klein, Nikos Kontogiannis, Savvas Kyriakidis, Paul Magdalino, Sophie Métivier, Jana Mokrisova, Brigitte Mondrain, Ayşe Özil, Arzu Öztürkmen, Brigitte Pitarakis, Annie Pralong†, Ioanna Rapti, Scott Redford, Özge Samancı, Amy Singer, Kostis Smyrlis, Gülru Tanman, Oğuz Tekin, Ece Turnator, Ümit Topuz, Tolga Uyar, Nükhet Varlık, and Anestis Vasilakeris.
I am grateful to Jean-Claude Cheynet, Oya Pancaroğlu, Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, and H. Erdem Çıpa, who kindly agreed to read and comment on parts of the first draft. Their thoughtful commentary on the manuscript was of immense help in giving shape to the final product. I also wish to thank Robin O. Surratt for copyediting the text, Haris Theodorelis-Rigas for checking of texts in Greek, Ayça Ünlüer for drawing the maps, and Sofragiu Petru for providing the cover photo.
Material support for this work was provided by generous grants from a number of institutions: l’Université de Galatasaray, research grant (2002–2003); French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Institut des études anatoliennes (IFEA), cotutelle fellowship (2003–2006); Boğaziçi University, BÜVAK Fahir İlkel scholarship (2003–2006); Koç University-RCAC/ANAMED, junior fellowship (2006–2007); Suna-İnan Kıraç Foundation, Istanbul Research Center (IAE),
This journey would not have started, or surely would have taken a different direction, if Işık Tamdoğan and Bertrand Lafont had not launched a fundraising drive among friends for my first year of graduate studies in Paris. I am humbled by the friendship, generosity, and faith of Işık, Bertrand, Hubert Lafont†, Michèle Lafont, Panagiotis Kanellakis†, Reha Erdem, and Nilüfer Güngörmüş Erdem. I would also like to thank Anne-Marie Lycuong and Manuel Gasquet, Pascal Laugier, Ruşen Çakır, Onur Soyer, Mehmet Tuncel, Diane-Pasquier and Thomas Chambolle, Katarina and Dimitri Amprazogoula, Elçim Orcaner Barkay, Benin Haznedar, Gülin Üstün, Şebnem and Sedat Abayoğlu, Gaye Boralıoğlu, Feyhan and Tony Jurkoviç, Şükran Bayrı, Evrim Kitapçı and Tardu Aslanoğlu, Birsin and Emin Kitapçı for their support, friendship, and hospitality during long years of “aller-retour” between Istanbul and Paris. Last but not least, warm thanks to my husband, Haldun Bayrı, to my daughter, Leyla, and to my son, Fikret Cem, for patiently standing by my side.