The Mercenary Mediterranean_ Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon - Hussein Fancy

xiv acknowledgments

de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, British Library, Beinecke Rare Book and

Manuscript Library, al- Maktaba al- Waṭaniyya al- Tūnisiyya, al- Maktaba

al- Waṭaniyya li’l- Mamlaka al- Maghribiyya, Qarawīyīn Library, and Dār

al- Kutub al- Miṣriyya.

At the University of Michigan, I found a community of extraordinary,

warm, and welcoming scholars across disciplines. The argument and shape

of this book developed first at the Michigan Society of Fellows, where I

had the good fortune to share work with Donald Lopez, Deirdre de la

Cruz, Miranda Johnson, Jeremy Mumford, Benjamin Paloff, and Chris-

topher Skeaff, among many others. Tomoko Masuzawa and Paul John-

son led an inspiring faculty seminar on religion and the secular. Valerie

Kivelson and Paolo Squatriti read the whole manuscript multiple times

and at various stages. They saw me through the woods. Kathryn Babayan,

Katherine French, Enrique García Santo- Tomás, Gottfried Hagen, and

Rebecca Scott provided detailed and valuable comments and corrections.

Stephen Berrey and Elise Lipkowitz were unflagging in their support.

Saeed Al Alaslaa and John Posch provided assistance with copy editing. I

also benefited from rich and enthusiastic conversations with Michael Bon-

ner, Howard Brick, Pär Cassel, Sueann Caufield, Juan Cole, Alison Cor-

nish, Will Glover, Mayte Green, George Hoffman, Diane Owen Hughes,

Sue Juster, Webb Keane, Victor Lieberman, Rudi Lindner, Karla Mal-

lette, Peggy McCracken, Farina Mir, Ian Moyer, Christian de Pee, Helmut

Puff, Cathy Sanok, Jean- Frédéric Schaub, Lee Schlesinger, Scott Spector,

Andrew Shryock, Ryan Szpiech, and Butch Ware.

I am also indebted to numerous other colleagues who read and com-

mented on this work. David Nirenberg has been a constant source of en-

couragement and intellectual inspiration. Thomas Burman, Olivia Remie

Constable, Adnan Husain, and Teofilo Ruiz read and provided detailed

responses that fundamentally shifted this work. Many others commented,

shared ideas, and gave encouragement: David Abulafia, Fred Astren,

Abigail Krasner Balbale, Simon Barton, Adam Beaver, Stephen Bensch,

Amira Bennison, Ross Brann, Sonja Brentjes, Philippe Buc, Richard Bul-

liet, Andrew Devreaux, Nahyan Fancy, Paul Freedman, Camilo Gómez-

Rivas, Jocelyn Hendrickson, Daniel Hershenzon, Peregrine Horden, Niko-

las Jaspert, Nancy Khalek, Sharon Kinoshita, Tamer El- Leithy, Anne

Lester, Yuen- Gen Liang, Christopher MacEvitt, Kathryn Miller, Mark

Pegg, Jonathan Ray, Jürgen Renn, Jarbel Rodriguez, Marina Rustow,

Jonathan Sheehan, Daniel Smail, Gabrielle Spiegel, Justin Stearns, De-

vin Stewart, Sarah Stroumsa, Francesca Trivellato, and Kenneth Baxter

Wolff.