Acknowledgments
In 2010, my then Ph.D. supervisor, Samer Ali, suggested to me JarÄ«r and al-Farazdaqâs NaqÄʾiḠas a possible thesis topic, and went on to see me through the long process of research, writing, revising, and defending my dissertation, and for that I owe him my utmost gratitude. Also instrumental in guiding me through the beginnings of this research were the other members of my committee, whom I wish to acknowledge and thank. In particular, Kristen Brustad and Mahmoud Al-Batal, together with Samer Ali, not only helped me with my dissertation, but through their courses, mentorship, letters of recommendation, and advice, have helped shape me into the scholar I am today.
In the intervening years since beginning work on this topic, I have made numerous conference presentations on different aspects of JarÄ«r, al-Farazdaq, and the NaqÄʾiá¸. Many times at these conferences, such venerated scholars in the field as Suzanne Stetkevych and the late Jaroslav Stetkevych have given me helpful feedback and advice on one aspect of my research or another. I thank them for this, and also for the dinners they generously paid for after conference panels.
The Journal of Arabic Literature has published an article that forms the basis of Chapter 1, and I would like to thank them, together with Editor-in-Chief, Muhsin al-Musawi, for granting me permission to republish a revised version of it here.
In 2011, I received a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship to travel to Egypt to complete work on my dissertation. Since that time, I have traveled to the United Kingdom several times to conduct archival research at the British Library in London and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, to France twice to research manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg, and to Germany to research the archives of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, all with assistance from grants made possible by George Washington University.
In recent years, as I have revisited my old translations of the NaqÄʾiḠand translated additional passages, I have relied on help from scholars in the field. Among these is Ali Hussein of the University of Haifa, whose translation help has improved the quality of the poetic passages found in this book. I would like to thank him for this and for his two excellent articles on JarÄ«r and al-Farazdaq, which have greatly aided my research. My good friend and colleague, Ebtissam Oraby, has given up countless hours, sometimes at a momentâs notice, to read and ponder with me many of the passages from the NaqÄʾiḠthat I cite in the book. My highest thanks go to her for this. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University for supporting my research efforts, and especially Eric Cline, who offered invaluable advice at several stages of the process.
The unsung heroes of any project as time consuming as a full-length monograph are the people one counts on for support day in and day out. My children, Emily and Eric, and my wife, Kristen, have sustained me through the many years of research and writing with understanding, kind words, and patience when mine wears thin. I thank them most of all.