ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IN ALGERIA, I OWE A SPECIAL THANKS to Mochtar Darrar, the former mayor and deputy-mayor for culture in Mascara, who guided me to locations where events described in the story took place. He shared not only his knowledge of the emir’s life and local history, but the hospitality of a home warmed by the generous cuisine of his Polish wife. To Nouredine Rehab, Mascara’s town librarian and an Abd el-Kader connoisseur, I am most grateful for his constant readiness to answer questions and provide materials. Bishop Henry Teissier opened up his personal library and shared with me new and useful materials I might have never discovered. He also was responsible for introducing me to Mohammed Ben Allal, a direct descendant of one of the emir’s most devoted and feared caliphs. Mohammed provided valuable information about his ancestor’s character and tribal traditions. Thanks to Waciny Laredj and to Fouad Gouni for your insights and advice.

I am indebted to Nabil Kuwatly, Elias Bullad and Princess Badira for their gift of time spent with me, their introductions and specialized areas of knowledge while I was in Syria, and to Jafar Jazairy for taking me on a tour of the emir’s residences in and around Damascus. No one should do research on Abd el-Kader today without consulting Professor Bruno Etienne in Aix en Provence. He generously shared bits and pieces of his encyclopaedic knowledge of the emir’s life, as well as documentary sources and answers to a multitude of questions. I am also grateful to Bruno Etienne’s collaborator, Francois Pouillon, for helping me sort through the politics and confusion of portraits and photographic images of Abd el-Kader. To the specialists at the Army Museum in Paris, my thanks for the fine points of uniforms and weaponry.

A big thank you to the Center for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia for a research grant, and to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for an opportunity to retire into a writer’s cocoon in the my final days of editing the manuscript. Thanks also for support from the Matheson Trust (UK) which promotes the comparative study of religion. My deep appreciation to Ed and Ruth Olson for introducing me to the Clayton County Archives in Elkader, Iowa where the emir’s legacy to America continues to be nurtured. Many people read, critiqued and improved the manuscript before it fell into the good hands of Paul Cohen and Peter Lewis, my editors at Monkfish Publishing. I especially want to thank Carol Edwards, Zoe Rosenberg, Beth György, Julie Portman, Tony Kiser, Anne Kiser, Sarge Cheever, Pat Curry, Al Fairchild, Scott Willis, Gay Barclay, Mohammed Khan Nasir, Reza Shah-Kazemi, Idriss Jazairy and Mireille Luc-Keith. Mireille was also my indispensable research assistant without whom I would have been overwhelmed by the voluminous French literature. Finally, I am profoundly thankful to my wife, Pam, for understanding that writing requires monkish and often anti-social ways.