Acknowledgments

Pruitt, Jennifer A.

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Acknowledgments

Jennifer A. Pruitt

Description: Building the Caliphate: Construction, Destruction, and Sectarian Identity in Early...

Building the Caliphate: Construction, Destruction, and Sectarian Identity in Early Fatimid Architecture

~I owe thanks to the many wonderful teachers, friends, family, and colleagues who have made contributions to this project over the years. My research into Fatimid architecture began as a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, where I had the honor and privilege to work with not one but two brilliant scholars of Islamic art history—Gülru...

Author

Jennifer A. Pruitt

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21426

Acknowledgments

I owe thanks to the many wonderful teachers, friends, family, and colleagues who have made contributions to this project over the years. My research into Fatimid architecture began as a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, where I had the honor and privilege to work with not one but two brilliant scholars of Islamic art history—Gülru Necipoğlu and David Roxburgh. Their stimulating questions, critiques, and encouragement greatly informed the current project from beginning to end. I am indebted to them for the support, guidance, inspiration, and model of scholarship they have provided. I only hope I can live up to their example. I would also like to thank Nasser Rabbat for his contributions to this study. His deep knowledge of Egypt and brilliant insights encouraged me to constantly rethink my work and push it in exciting new directions.

I would also like to thank my professors at Smith College, in particular Brigitte Buettner, John Davis, Barbara Kellum, and Dana Leibsohn. Not only did they inspire my early interest in art history, they later gave me my first opportunity to teach my own courses, offering invaluable feedback on my research as I navigated the stormy waters of the academic job market.

I conducted research for this project in Egypt, Italy, Palestine, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom, with the support of grants from the Fulbright IIE, the American Research Center in Egypt, the Institute of Ismaili Studies, the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Harvard University, Smith College, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. For their assistance, I thank Matthew Adams, Farhad Daftary, Deanna Dalrymple, Noha el-Gindi, Amira Khattab, Bruce Lohof, Gerry Scott, and Cynthia Verba. While conducting my research, I benefited greatly from the guidance and assistance of scholars, curators, and fellow researchers. In particular, I thank Muhammad Abbas, Iman Abdulfattah, Jere Bacharach, Jonathan Bloom, Fatemah al-Buloshi, Simonetta Calderini, Sheila Canby, Stefano Carboni, Delia Cortese, Edmund de Unger, Bassem al-Halac, Gordon Harvey, Zahi Hawass, Abeer Heider, Ibrahim Jibril, Yael Lempert, Ayelet Lester, Ashraf Nageh, Bernard O’Kane, Ben Outhwaite, Seif el-Rashidi, Sobhi Sabir, George Scanlon, Ola Seif, Peter Sheehan, Tarek Swelim, Osama Talaat, and Nicholas Warner for their help and feedback. I am particularly grateful to Bernard O’Kane, for early previews of his database of Egyptian inscriptions, and for sharing images of the Mosque of al-Hakim for this publication. I also thank Paul Walker, who offered valuable, early feedback on this project and generously shared his unpublished research on the life of al-Hakim.

I have been delighted to complete this book in the supportive environs of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. While in Madison, I received a semester fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities and a First Book award, which brought a group of scholars together to offer me feedback on my manuscript. In addition, support for this research was provided by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education with funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. At UW, I would like to give particular thanks to Carolina Alarcon, Anna Andrzejewski, Diane Bollant-Peschl, Shira Brisman, Suzy Buenger, Nick Cahill, Jill Casid, Preeti Chopra, Tom Dale, Hendry Drewal, Sam England, Kelly Fox, Susan Friedman, Gail Geiger, Sara Guyer, Steve Hutchinson, Teddy Kaul, Yuhang Li, Nancy Rose Marshall, Ann Smart Martin, Steve Nadler, Névine el-Nossery, Gene Phillips, Mitra Sharafi, Anna Simon, and Chris Stricker. For their feedback during the First Book seminar, I offer my deepest gratitude to Dede Ruggles and Yasser Tabbaa. I also thank the students at UW–Madison for keeping me on my toes, inspiring me with their brilliance, and making this all worth doing. In particular, I thank Ahmed Abdelazim for his help chasing footnotes and drawing up plans for the final stages of this project.

My thoughts on interfaith relations in the medieval Mediterranean developed significantly during a month-long residence at the National Endowment for the Humanities Institute in Barcelona. Thank you, in particular, to Heather Badamo, Brian Catlos, Sarah Davis-Secord, Marie Kelleher, and Sharon Kinoshita for their insights during this wonderful month.

So many art historians have offered ideas during talks, feedback on this draft, or other help. For their insights, I thank Glaire Anderson, Abigail Balbale, Persis Berlekamp, Patricia Blessing, Walter Denny, Margaret Graves, Christiane Gruber, Eva Hoffman, Joseph Connors, Karen Leal, Stephennie Mulder, Andras Riedlmayer, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Ünver Rüstem, Matt Saba, Yasmine al-Saleh, Sharon Smith, and Heghnar Watenpaugh.

It has been a pleasure to work with Yale University Press, especially Katherine Boller, Seth Ditchik, Mary Mayer, Raychel Rapazza, and Kate Zanzucchi, as well as freelance copyeditor Alison Hagge, proofreader Glenn Perkins, indexer Enid Zafran, and cartographer Bill Nelson. I thank them for their thoroughness and efficiency and for making this such a manageable process.

The greatest joy of my academic trajectory has been the wonderful friendships I have made. Many of these individuals went above and beyond the call of duty in not only offering intellectual sustenance but in being the best of friends. I thank Ladan Akbarnia, Chanchal Dadlani, Matt Ellis, Emine Fetvaci, Alicia Walker, and Suzan Yalman for always making me glad I went down this path. I offer the greatest thanks to my Skype writing buddies and Cairo besties, Carmen Gitre and Shana Minkin, who made this process a lot less lonely. I love you all.

Then there are the people who just keep me (relatively) sane. For their laughter, love, and help along the way, I thank Annaliese Beery, Lisa Cooper, Ozzie Ercan, Maddie Jansen, Valerie Maine, Makenna Peterson, Soyang Phunktsok, Sara Pruss, Claire Reed, Jordan Rosenblum, and the fierce ladies of the best book club in the world. For my family members, who put up with me, thank you to Nancy Collins, Kevin Collins, Cheryl Hammond, Craig Hammond, and Karen Kovacs.

As happens with any long journey, in the process of completing this book, I lost dear friends and family. I am grateful to the memory of my friends Ann Musser and Betty Reed; my grandmothers, Virginia Kovacs and Jody Pruitt; and my father, Thomas Pruitt. I am sorry I can’t celebrate the completion of this project with you but thank you for making life brighter while you were here.

Most of all, I am so very grateful to Mark, Josie, and Evie Hammond. To quote a toddler I know: “You’re my best friends. I love you too much.” Mark, I am forever thankful for your unwavering support, friendship, humor, and flexibility. You encouraged me to pursue this path, traipsed around the world with me, reminded me of our great fortune, and always kept me laughing. But I’m dedicating this book to the kids, because I think they’ll get a bigger kick out of it.

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