Acknowledgments
This book owes a lot to many people and places that shaped it on different levels.
To my family, first of all, who believed in me more than I did, encouraging me to travel far, learn languages, and write books.
My gratitude goes to Dr Bilal Orfali for first having mentioned the idea of angels to me when I was struggling with jinns, and for being the mentor I did not know I needed; I am also grateful to Dr Mahmoud al-Batal, Dr Enass Khansa, Dr Maya Abdel Megeed, and Dr David Wilmsen for their support in key moments; to my people of the night, Reem Harb, Beatrice Morlacchi, Riccardo Paredi, Philip Raad, and Khalil Sawan; to the rest of the whole team of the Department of Arabic and Near-Eastern Languages (including but not limited to Aida Abbas, Fatima Chehouri, Racha Dabbagh, Ana Iriarte Diez, Lina Jammal, Rima Kanawati, Hany Ramadan, Marie Saroufim, Oksana Prokhorovych, Fatima Zaraket, and too many others to be mentioned here); to my special Beirut support team, Dolly Arbaji and her Nadine, Rasha el-Ameer, Leila Drif, Loumia Ferhat, Sulayma Mardam-Bey, and Valérie Vautier who welcomed me when everything went to pieces outside.
This book also owes much to the American University of Beirut (the most beautiful place I have ever worked in), to the Erasmus Plus program with Freie Universität in Berlin; to the Orient Institut in Beirut; and to the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies in Cairo.
Last but foremost, I am also deeply indebted to the multi-level support and friendship of my Lebanese godmother Brigitte Caland and my Palestinian aunt Hala Sayegh, who welcomed me into their respective families, and to all those who helped me from the visible and invisible worlds.
Some of them, along with many other friends and acquaintances of mine across the world, have passed from the visible to the invisible world since this whole adventure started—one of them being my father, and my thoughts are gliding toward him as I go through the finishing touches of this journey.