Acknowledgements
Once again our thanks go first and foremost to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), whose financial support made it possible for this research project to exist, under the same title as the book series (Project number: 273594864). We acknowledge also the encouragement and input we received from members of our advisory board: Heidrun Eichner, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Frank Griffel, Andreas Lammer, Judith Pfeiffer, Reza Pourjavady, Mohammed Rustom, Gregor Schwarb, Ayman Shihadeh, Tony Street, and Robert Wisnovsky. We would like to thank Nada Abdelsalam, Hanif Amin Beidokhti, Davlat Dadikhuda, Rotraud Hansberger, Dag N. Hasse, Damien Janos, Michael Lessman, Salimeh Maghsoudlou, Abdurrahman Mihirig, Michael Noble, Jens Ole Schmitt, Sarah Virgi, Francesco Zamboni, and Behnam Zolghadr, who collaborated with our group in various ways. We are also grateful to Heide König, who prepared the index for this volume and also helped with compiling the bibliography. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous referees who made numerous helpful suggestions and corrections on an earlier manuscript of the book.