My first and greatest debt is to Mujāhid Ḥaydar. This book would not exist without his generosity, openness, and confidence in me. He opened his life and personal history to me, and over a period of ten years cooperated with me on this book with boundless commitment, dedication, and patience. I consider this book his accomplishment as much as mine. My thanks also go to his family, in Sufyān and elsewhere, for supporting this research. In the final phase of the writing process they even organized a search for photos in war-torn Yemen. I am also indebted to many Yemeni friends, who prefer to remain anonymous, and who, with their knowledge and good counsel, contributed so much to the evolution of this book.
It is a privilege to undertake research at the Institute for Social Anthropology (isa) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna whose long research tradition on South Arabia is well known. At isa, I was (and continue to be) surrounded by a team of scholars on Yemen and South Arabia, scholars whose expertise spans from medieval times to the present day. From the inception of this book Andre Gingrich, former isa director, provided support and insightful feedback throughout the writing and editing of my drafts. I am also grateful to Johann Heiss, Alexander Weissenburger, Magdalena Moorthy Kloss, Lisa Lenz-Ayoub, Najwa Adra, Daniel Varisco, and Shada Bokir, all of them present or past members of isa’s South Arabian Studies Group, for providing invaluable feedback throughout the process of research and writing.
I am deeply indebted to Gabriele vom Bruck, who, by sharing her immense experience and knowledge, and by devoting much of her time, read through and commented on the whole manuscript draft and continued to give generous attention and advice throughout the writing process. I have also benefited from discussions with, and information provided by, Noel Brehony, Anne-Linda Amira Augustin, Mareike Transfeld, Horst Kopp, Helen Lackner, Yoav Alon, Leonardo Schiocchet, Martin Jerrett, and Renate Schmidt. I would also like to thank Günther Orth, Elisabeth Kendall, and Mohammed Abu Taleb for helping me translate and interpret some difficult Arabic source material, including the zāmil at the beginning of this book. None, however, has any part in the shortcomings of my work: for those, and for the interpretations I offer, I alone bear responsibility.
I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with Brill. Nienke Brienen-Moolenaar guided me through the work of publishing. I am sincerely grateful to Brill’s anonymous peer reviewers, for their careful attention, their brilliant feedback, and their support and encouragement in the final stages of work on
From 2015 to 2021, for the research that led to this book I received funding from the Austrian National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development for the Austrian Academy of Sciences in the framework of the New Frontiers Groups (nfg) Project Deciphering Local Power Politics in Northwest Yemen. I also would like to thank the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Social Anthropology in Vienna for the efforts they have made to remove visible and invisible barriers and create a helpful working environment for me as a scholar with a severe disability.