Acknowledgements
There are a host of individuals and institutions without whom this project could not have been brought into being. First and foremost, I am forever thankful to my Doktorvater Shahzad Bashir, whose profound personal warmth and virtuosic scholarly sensibilities have transformed my approach to knowing and being indelibly. My appreciation for Shahzad extends beyond letters and words, for his dynamic vision and boundless generosity never cease to illuminate new possibilities. I owe a heavy debt to Nancy Khalek, whose incisive intellect and wry wit have encouraged me to embrace the messy realities of human actors across social and intellectual worlds, both historical and contemporary. Not only has her tutelage sharpened my historical consciousness and clarity of expression; her sheer presence has shown me the importance of empathy as a pedagogical virtue. I am deeply grateful to Elias Muhanna, whose gracious hospitality, jazzy inflections, and encyclopedic grasp of all things encyclopedic have buoyed me through the personal and intellectual dimensions of my career. I will continue to crib lines from his effortless improvisations as I play through the changes of life, music, and scholarly inquiry.
I thank Gerhard Böwering for setting me on the straight path of Islamic studies, Frank Griffel for leading me through the finer points of Islamic theology and philosophy, and Stephen Davis for showing me that there need not be a boundary between rigorous analysis and theoretical sophistication. To James Montgomery I owe an enormous debt of gratitude for his patient instruction in the subtle wonders of reading, translating, and productive ambiguity. His steady encouragement and remarkable character have been invaluable. I am ever grateful to Matt Melvin-Koushki, whose prescient wisdom has lit the way since my very first steps into the field. From his early instruction as my TA to his sincere guidance as a friend and colleague, Matt’s alchemy has transmuted my outlook in innumerable ways, manifest and occult.
I thank Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina for opening up a world of theoretical possibilities and tolerating excessive flights of Neoplatonic wonder and postmodern irony. Alexander Key deserves high praise for guiding me through the complexities of language and meaning while enduring my stubborn ramblings. I am grateful to Marie Huber for sensitizing me to the poetics of metaphysical discourse and Bissera Pentcheva for illuminating the productive potential of shimmering surfaces, lush tones, and performative expression. I thank Jae Hee Han for his candid professional advice and expert instruction in the art of molding undergraduates into capable Neoplatonists. To Jason Protass I owe many thanks for grounding me in the noble truths of literary theory, early career insights, and funky syncopated grooves. I also extend my deep gratitude to Jill Covington, Amanda Barnes, Tina Creamer, Nicole Vadnais, and Anita Brown who have consistently saved me from my own bureaucratic ineptitude. Without the help of my language teachers, this project simply would not have been possible. Thank you to Aja Chaker, Hasmik Tovmasyan, Sarab Al Ani, Muhammad Aziz, Shadee Elmasry, Hebah Shahinhindi, Bayan Al Bitar, the late Ali Theeb Zayed, Matteo Di Giovanni, Shady Nasser, April Seager, Shervin Emami, Lizzy Ten-Hove (for that one quarter of Koine Greek!), and Jane Sokolosky.
Research for this project was made possible by the institutions that supported my work, the libraries that afforded me access to their collections, and the individuals who graciously shared their ideas with me. I thank the Joukowsky Institute and Brown Middle East Studies for funding my travel to Istanbul and covering my expenses therein; the Süleymaniye Library, along with the archivists and staff who patiently fulfilled my requests for thousands of manuscript folia; Brown University Library for scanning, purchasing, or otherwise procuring texts for me during the COVID-19 pandemic; and James Madison University for supporting research and editing work during the final stages of the project. I am profoundly grateful to Paul Ballanfat and Elizabeth Alexandrin, who have been incredibly generous with their time and resources. Their manuscripts, chapter drafts, and insightful perspectives on Saʿd al-Dīn and his world have been fundamental to the project since its inception. To Noah Gardiner and Ali Karjoo-Ravary, I extend many thanks for sharing their work on Sufi diagrams and entertaining the questions that ensued.
I thank the Global Islamic Studies Program at Connecticut College for a generous fellowship and incredible hospitality. Eileen Kane, Sufia Uddin, Dean Accardi, and Marie Ostby made my time in New London both personally fulfilling and intellectually rewarding. Scott and Joan Warren were kind enough to offer up their home—I could not have imagined a more idyllic space for reading, writing, and thinking. I extend a hearty thanks to my students in Power and Knowledge in Islam as well. Fiona, Anzhela, and Jackie handled our course material brilliantly, offering wonderful insights that shaped my thinking and teaching in profound ways.
I am grateful to Islamic Philosophy in Conversation and Islamic Occult Philosophy on the Rise for nurturing a sense of intellectual community during our global pandemic. Even if confined to the virtual realm, the incredibly rich papers, presentations, and discussions fostered by these groups rekindled my enthusiasm for scholarship during the lonely months of social isolation.
At Brill, I thank Abdurraouf Oueslati for his careful oversight and Mona Saif for a smooth and painless publication process. I am grateful to my anonymous peer reviewers (one of whom has since revealed himself as Oludamini Ogunnaike) for their meticulous corrections, constructive critiques, and generative suggestions. I thank my copy editor Harry Neale for his meticulous attention to prose and style across multiple scripts and languages. I also thank Aisha Moussa for her indexing and careful attention to my manuscript, Manon Vrolijk for coordinating typesetting and proofs, and Emma Gentry for her eleventh-hour editorial assistance. Together, these editors and reviewers have sharpened my thinking while saving me from a host of embarrassing slips. All remaining errors, of course, are my own.
My time as a graduate student at Stanford and Brown brought me into the orbit of wonderful colleagues for whose company I am extremely grateful. At Stanford, I offer my thanks to Esiteli Uhamaka, Will Sherman, Ahoo Najafian, Adeana McNicholl, Simona Lazzerini, Joshua Gentzke, Hannah Highfill, Alexander Marcus, Sangyop Lee, Yi (Allan) Ding, Grace Ramswick, and the entire Rains CA crew. At Brown, I thank Shane Thompson, Nicholas Andersen, Michael Payne, Carolina Mendoza, Reyhan Durmaz, Noah Tetenbaum, Muntazir Ali, Lise Miltner, Chavi Banker, Chris Yang, Mariam Abou-Kathir, Tara Dhaliwal, and Aseel Azab. I am grateful to Reuben Cohn-Gordon, whose erudite post-ironic reflections on language, AI, and human experience are equal parts edifying and entertaining. I extend a special thanks to Tanvir Ahmed, whose superhuman largesse, sober self-reflection, and staggering command of Islamic history continue to temper the dizzying ḥayra of academic life.
My colleagues at James Madison University provided me invaluable support as I transformed a dissertation into a book. I am grateful to Steve Hoeltzel for his riffs on philosophy and black metal; David Ehrenpreis for his insights into the transcendent; Mark Piper for the jams, musical and intellectual; Alan Levinovitz for probing the limits of apophasis; and Emily Gravett for her incisive reflections on life, self, and work. I thank Frances Flannery for her candor and strategic virtuosity; Alan Kirk for his sage wisdom (and jazz recs); Christie Kilby for her frank discussions of teaching, scholarship, and the field; David Kirkpatrick for his steadfast encouragement; Pia Antolic-Piper for her hospitality and solidarity as a medievalist; Bob Brown for his institutional expertise and guidance; Sushil Mittal for his warmth and intellectual honesty; and James Ward for his meditations on pedagogy as Bildung. I owe a hearty thanks to Chip Bolyard, Patrick Fleming, and Jeff Goodman for countless victories with the Snails of Destruction. I would be remiss without thanking my students, whose earnest questions, comments, and critiques have helped me refine the arguments and approaches I develop in this book.
I am indebted to Kill Lincoln for planning tours and studio time around my research, teaching, and coursework; indulging bizarre monologues in rest stops and sweaty vans; and affording me the opportunity to play ska punk across the country (and the world). Thank you to Mike Sosinski, Matt Ellis, Tyler Rodgers, Yasutaka Umemoto, and Drew Skibitsky.
My mother’s tenacious intellectual curiosity and my father’s ebullient joy for life echo across every page of this project. Their countless sacrifices, boundless love, and fundamental lessons both spoken and unspoken have opened opportunities that I could never fully comprehend. No matter how esoteric the topic, farfetched the approach, or lofty the goal, their encouragement has been enthusiastic and unshakeable. A sea of letters would not be enough to thank them for all they have done for me.
My partner Maria is an endless fount of joy and inspiration. She continues to hone my hazy intuitions, endure my absurd digressions, and drag me from the mire of recursive deconstruction. Her acute ethico-historical sensibilities and penchant for generative critique push me to new horizons of self-reflection and analytical possibility. Thank you, Maria, for showing me the meaning of beauty in all its forms.
Cyril Villarosa Uy II
Harrisonburg, VA
August 2, 2024