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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments This book could not have been written without the support of colleagues and the kindness of friends and strangers. In the Near Eastern Studies Department at Cornell, David Owen gave me access to his remarkable library of Nuziana; Lance Allred, Nicole Brisch, Alhena Godotti, and Chris Monroe answered questions about Akkadian and the ancient Near East; Lauren Monroe responded to questions about the Hebrew Bible; and Kim Haines-Eitzen did the same for questions about the New Testament. Ragi Ibrahim helped me decipher a difficult Arabic text. The burdens of research were lightened by my research assistants, Ben Towbin and Esther Dorland, and by the book delivery service of Olin Library at Cornell. Special thanks to Munther Younes, who has been a steady source of support, encouragement, and expert knowledge about the Arabic language. Quick responses to sudden and unexpected queries were sent to me by Jonathan Culler, Jany János, Geoffrey Khan, Gerd Puin, David Schapps, Keith Small, Lynn Thitchener, and Cornelia Wunsch. I benefited from conversations with friends and colleagues, sometimes over a meal, in a corridor, or in cyberspace. I thank Khaled Abou El Fadl, Asad Ahmad, Kecia Ali, Mohammed Arkoun, Robert Ascher, Peri Bearman , Maria-Pia di Bella, Haggai Ben-Shammai, Angelica Bernal, Faik Bouhrik, Ra’anan Bustan, Vincent Cornell, Yossi David, Vivien Farhi, Richard Gauvain, Rabbi Scott Glass, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Susannah Heschel, Gail Holst-Warhaft, Khurram Hussein, R. Kevin Jaques, Baber Johansen, Walter Kaegi, Georges Khalil, Admiel Kosman, Timur Kuran, Ella Landau-Tasseron, Michael Lecker, Gideon Libson, Moriah Libson (may her memory be for a blessing), Ghislaine Lydon, Ken and Gabi Mann-Kanovitz, Michael Marx, Brinkley Messick, Christian Müller, Angelika Neuwirth, Gordon Newby, Rhoda Posen, Peter Potter, Megan Reid, Milka Rubin, Marina Rustow, Nava Scharf, Fred Schneider, Bill and Lucy Schwartz, Roni Shaham, Shalom Shoer, Petra Sijpesteijn, Nicolai Sinai, Susan Slymovics, Guy and Sarah Stroumsa, Etty Terem, Avram Udovitch, Lucette Valensi, Michael and Peggy Wager, Phil and Amy Waldoks, Joseph Witztum, Kevin van Bladel, and Ed Zehner. The following colleagues read one or more chapters in draft form and offered comments and criticisms that were enormously helpful: Mohammed Hocine Benkheira, Calum Carmichael, Aryeh Cohen, Michael Cook, 356 Acknowledgments Patricia Crone, Yasir Kazi, Harald Motzki, Devin Stewart, Yohanan Friedmann , Aharon Layish, Jon Levenson, Scott Lucas, Ze’ev Maghen, Ghassan Masri, Maurice Pomerantz, A. Kevin Reinhart, Uri Rubin, Jens Scheiner, Ron Shaham, Adam Silverstein, Susan Spectorsky, Justin Stearns, Ray Westbrook, and Munther Younes. Special thanks to Daniel Boyarin, Fred Donner, Frank Griffel, Steven Judd, and Andrew Rippin, who read full drafts of the typescript and offered important suggestions for improvement of the argument and its organization . I presented drafts of individual chapters as lectures or conference papers at the following venues: American Oriental Society (2008 annual meeting), Annenberg Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Emory University, Harvard University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Indiana University, School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the Sorbonne, University of Southern California at Los Angeles, Washington University, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and Yale University. Special thanks to A. Kevin Reinhart and Shawkat Toorawa, who presented my paper in my absence when an act of God made it impossible for me to attend the 2007 AOS meeting in Texas. Three colleagues occupy a special place in my heart: Ze’ev Maghen opened my eyes to the way in which our understanding of narrative reports about the life of Muhămmad is enhanced by comparison to biblical models; François Déroche guided my first steps in the study of early Qurān manuscripts ; and Adam Silverstein has been a delightful interlocutor, correspondent , and critic. This project took me into areas of the academy that I never imagined entering. For assistance with multispectral imaging, I thank Virginia Cole and Tatyana Petukhova of Olin Library at Cornell University and the photographic services at Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Special thanks to Roger Easton of Rochester Institute of Technology, and to his student intern Marwah, who spent hours analyzing images of BNF 328a. For assistance with x-ray fluorescent spectroscopy, I thank Don Bilderbeck, Darren Dale, Richard Ehrlich, and Sol Gruner of Cornell University. In Paris, analysis of BNF 328a, folio 10b was carried out by Armando Solé (Grenoble) and Philippe Walter (The Louvre), with the assistance of Brice Moignard, Laurent Pichon, and Laurence de Viguerie. Special thanks also to Marie-Geneviève Guesdon, curator of Arabic manuscripts at BNF, for her many kindnesses. Financial support for travel to...