Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the support of numerous individuals and institutions that made this book possible. First and foremost, I thank my parents, Ellen and Hank Lucas, for their love and support my entire life, wherever it has taken me. My wife, Maha, and children, Ali and Salma, have made this journey so much more rewarding and enjoyable than I possibly could have imagined. My brother Jon and his familyâErin, Miles, and Declanâhave been a happy part of my life throughout the time I was writing this book. Iâve also been blessed with loving in-laws, who have been highly supportive of my work: Khawla and the late Tawfik Nassar (May Allah have mercy on him); Ida and Rochdi; Aladdin and Dalia; and Salma and Basil. Thank you all for helping me get here.
The catalysts for this book were a generous ACLS Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (2018â19) and a Membership in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey (Fall 2018). I am grateful for this fellowship, which allowed me to benefit from the mentorship of Sabine Schmidtke at the Institute for Advanced Study and her unrivaled expertise with Yemeni manuscripts. The Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame has been highly supportive of my diverse research projects on ZaydÄ« Islam, nearly all of which are dependant upon the Medieval Instituteâs unique microfilm collection of the Arabic manuscripts held by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy. The former Director of the Medieval Institute, Thomas Burman, current librarian, Julia Schneider, and current Associate Director, Megan Hall, have made me feel welcome and provided me with stipends during my regular summer visits to Hesburgh Library. I wish to thank David Hollenberg at the University of Oregon for founding the Yemeni Manuscripts Digitization Initiative (YMDI), along with its host, the Digital Princeton University Library, which continues to provide online access to 236 Yemeni manuscripts, including a digital surrogate of the complete manuscript of the QurʾÄn commentary at the heart of this monograph. Prior to 2025, this website was the only way a researcher outside of Yemen could access high-resolution images of The Garden and the Pool.
I wish to express my gratitude to the University of Arizona for employing me throughout the tenure of this project and to recognize the support I have received from my senior colleague, Benjamin Fortna, Director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies. My doctoral students, Mohamed Moustafa and Gianni Izzo, both of whom wrote amazing dissertations, provided valuable feedback on draft chapters. One of the anonymous reviewers provided detailed comments and corrections on the entire book manuscript, which proved to be highly beneficial. I am grateful to Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana for granting me permission to include five images from two manuscripts held by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in this book. Finally, it has been a real pleasure working with Nienke Brienen-Moolenaar at De Gruyter Brill as my book manuscript traveled from submission to acceptance for publication in the Texts and Studies on the QurʾÄn series.