It was a long journey to translate my obsessions into an academic language. Those who made it possible or taught me how to do this are the following in chronological order: István Ormos; Nadia Al-Bagdadi; Anna Selmeczi; László Kontler; Marsha Siefert; Mercedes Volait and the staff of EN VISU (INHA); Khaled Fahmy; Philipp Ther; Selim Deringil; Philip Sadgrove; Ralph Bodenstein; Ahmad El-Bindari and his family; Emad Helal; Aziz Al-Azmeh; Edhem Eldem; Georges Khalil; Ola Seif; Alia Mosallam; Nariman Youssef; Ulrike Freitag; Nora Lafi; Georges Khalil, Michael Allan and my EUME-fellows in 2011–2012; Esra Akcan; Nelly Hanna; the late Max Karkegi; Manuela Zervudachi; Yasmine El Dorghamy; Eugene Rogan; Avi Shlaim; Walter Armbrust; Lucie Ryzova; Mohamed Salah-Omri and colleagues at Oxford’s Oriental Institute; Abbas Hilmi and the Mohamed Ali Foundation; my fellow Junior Fellows at the Harvard Society of Fellows, especially my indefatigable partner of conversation Abhishek Kaicker, and Ya-Wen Lei, Daniela Cammack, Christopher Rogan, Marta Figlerowicz, Alma Steingart, Alexander Bevilacqua, and Andrew Ollett; Alexandre Cordahi—I remain grateful for his family letters, our discussions, and for calling my attention to the images of Cardahi’s troupe in Paris; Roger Owen; Cemal Kafadar; Sreemati Mitter; Noora Lory; Dana Sajdi; Raph Cormack, Kathryn Schwartz, and special thanks to Noah Feldman for the help and Khaled Fahmy again for the final push. I thank Nadia Mustafa and the staff in the Egyptian National Archives (DWQ); the staffs in CEU’s History Department, Dār al-Maḥfūẓāt al-ʿUmūmiyya, Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, IDEO, BOA, Atatürk Kitaplığı, İSAM, İRCICA, BL, NA, BnF, MEC Library in St Antony’s in Oxford, AUC library, the Special Collections at Durham University, MEA in Nantes, AUB Special Collections; András Riedlmayer and the Harvard Widener staff; the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek; Diana Morse, Kelly Katz, and Yeşim Erdmann at the SoF; the support of László Vida, István Zimonyi, László Tüske, Renáta Kovács (four succeeding directors of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Cairo); the staff in IFAO and the research project Architecture Cosmopolite; the Milton Fund of Harvard University; Ilse Lazaroms, Gábor Danyi, Elena Sahin, and Deniz Turker who copied books or documents for me in various cities; and Lina Mounzir and George Taylor for patiently correcting my English. Peter Hill graciously read the whole manuscript hunting for transliteration mistakes and saved me from two grave mistranslations. Finally, it was a pleasure to prepare this book for publication while in residence at IFAO and I thank Nicolas Michel, its most generous staff, and the good people of Munīra.
Kim Greenwell rescued me with the best editing coaching that one could ever wish. This is partly her book. My special thanks also go to the fantastic reviewers at Princeton University Press and to Jay Boggis for the wonderful copyediting. The reviewers, critical remarks shaped very much the final argument. The Dean’s Publication Subsidy at Trinity College, Duke University, helped with the expense of indexing the book. I thank Fred Appel at Princeton University Press for his encouragement, editing, and the professional help during the publication process. Friends in the Kuwait circle—you know who you are—were of constant inspiration. Without Ya-Wen’s love I would have not been able to finish. I dedicate this book to my mother, Edit Alföldi, and my grandmother, Edit Wolf, while I thank my grandfather, Lajos Alföldi, for never giving up his faith in me.
I have incorporated materials from two earlier articles of mine (“Music and Power in Cairo,” Urban History and “Arabic Theatre in Early Khedivial Culture,” IJMES) with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
Translations, unless indicated otherwise, are mine. And all mistakes remain mine alone.