in the course of the many years it has taken for this project to come to life, I have incurred many debts to family, friends, and colleagues. Throughout the journey of the conception, labor, and fruition of this project, I have come to benefi t from the intellectual companionship and help of many people. I am grateful to Felicitas Opwis, Ahmad Dallal, Judith Tucker, and John Voll from Georgetown University for their intellectual and moral support in the fi rst stage of the project. The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) provided funding for the earliest stage of this project in 2009–10. This funding enabled me to examine unpublished manuscripts and archival material without which this project would not have been possible. I am grateful to the staff at Egypt’s National Archives (D?r al-Wath?’iq al-Qawmiyya), Egypt’s National Library (D?r al-Kutub), the British Library, Georgetown University Library, the Library of the Free University of Berlin, and the Institute of Islamic Studies Library at McGill University. For their editorial and research help, I am grateful to Steve Millier as well as my research assistants and students, Omar Edaibat, Margaret Gilligan, Ahmad Munir, and Segolene Lapeyre of McGill University. Georgetown University-Qatar provided a generous fellowship in 2010–11 that helped me conduct more research for this project. To write this book, Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME) of the Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien provided postdoctoral funding that enabled me to expand my research and write the fi rst full book draft in 2011–12.