lu
(lu)
#1
ACKnoWlEdGEMEnTS
This book was originally a doctoral thesis, and i owe its composition,
along with my whole training as a historian, to Professor Şerban Papa-
costea, member of the Romanian Academy, who has supervised my work
as a researcher at the nicolae iorga institute of History in Bucharest
since 1971.
Professor Gottfried Schramm, Professor ulrich Haarmann, Professor dieter
Mertens and doctor ursula ott of the Albert ludwig university of Freiburg
gave me unstinting support, in word and in deed, while i was gathering
source material in German libraries with the help of a stipend from the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. My great good fortune in having
such help and support became clear to me ten years later back home in
Romania, when i set about updating the bibliography for the English edi-
tion of this work. Although much can be achieved with research on the
internet and inter-library loans, i sorely felt my lack of access to libraries
such as that of the Freiburg orientalisches Seminar, which undoubtedly
contain a wealth of recent literature on the topic which i could not, alas,
include.
Samuel Willcocks and his wife, dr Maria Pakucs, have ensured that the
English translation follows my arguments and style in the Romanian ver-
sion of the book as closely as possible, while dr iuliana Barnea’s profes-
sional and painstaking work on the maps has illustrated the sweep and
scope of these arguments.
To all these people, and to the institutions named, i owe my most heart-
felt gratitude.
