Acknowledgements
Some of these research findings were submitted for examination as a doctoral thesis, in 2018. In bringing this project to fruition, I am indebted to my research supervisory team, my parents for their financial support and patience, my sister, Anisa, for sympathetic telephone calls during periods of isolation while I was writing this book, and the kindness of friends. At SOAS (University of London), I extend particular thanks to Professor Stefan Sperl, Dr Marlé Hammond, and Dr Gabriele vom Bruck. I am also grateful to my external examiners, Professor Robert Gleave (University of Exeter) and Professor Abir Hamdar (Durham University), for equipping me with fresh insights that I have developed in the revised edition. My teachers are many; Professor Geert Jan van Gelder helped me to translate a baffling piece of Classical Arabic poetry that did not appear in the original thesis, and Dr Elisabeth Kendall, a specialist in jihadist poetry, enabled me to navigate some of the most challenging terrain. I also wish to thank Mr Abdurraouf Oueslati, my editor at Brill, for his patience and for encouraging me to bring this project to a wider readership. Critical to its realisation, the blind peer review refined this work immeasurably, and I feel privileged to have been the recipient of expert tutelage and guidance from two anonymous contributors. I also thank Pieter te Velde and his production team for their diligence in generating the final product. This study includes hate speech that is targeted at particular identity groups and therefore I wish to forewarn the reader of offensive rhetoric that I in no way advocate, nor condone. Some of the ideas referred to in this work are also expressed in my journal article (Fakhro 2020) that is based upon the same body of research.