Like most research in the Social Sciences and Humanities, even though the author bears full responsibility for the research results, he or she is hardly the sole person to have participated in the research process. There are always ‘significant others’, ranging from people who provide the funding, those who facilitate the fieldwork research, to those who provide, initially, relevant material and, later, critical insights, as well as those who see through the publication process of the research results. Their efforts and input are indispensable to making the research worthwhile in the first place and to whom the author remains very much indebted.
In my case, I am grateful, first of all, to my fellow colleagues in the research countries who helped not only with locating relevant material but who also introduced me to the appropriate people. Sincere thanks go to Ahmet Alibašić in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Daniel Vekony, Erzsebet N. Rozsa and Omar Sayfo in Hungary; Agata Nalborczyk and Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska in Poland; Simeon Evstatiev, Atanas Krussteff and Aziz Shakir in Bulgaria; Karel Černy in Czechia.
I am obliged to the three anonymous reviewers for their critical comments, which led me to improve immensely the contents of the book. I only can hope that I have met their expectations expressed in the reviews.
I am grateful to the Editors of the Muslim Minorities Series at Brill who deemed my research idea and its results publishable.
I appreciate Nienke Brienen-Moolenaar’s assistance as well as everyone else at Brill for guiding me throughout the whole publication process.
My sincere thanks go to Shaun O’Neill for doing the proofreading.
I also need to apologize to my family—Aušra, Rachelė and Magdalena—for having been absent from home for too many days while on fieldwork trips or writing retreats. I sincerely hope that the result of my efforts—this book—will somehow compensate for that.
The research for this book was made possible by the research project No 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0085, funded by the European Social Fund under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT). I am grateful to Tomas Sodeika, the head of the project, for having invited me to join the project team.