Acknowledgments
This work could not have come to fruition without the help and support of many people. It began life as a dissertation submitted to SOAS, University of London, under the supervision of Professor Hugh Kennedy, to whom I owe great thanks for all his help. He is the most knowledgeable, humble and encouraging supervisor that one could have. It would also not have been possible without the many years of support and encouragement from both my parents and family, who not only made this study possible, but were also vital in everything that led up to it.
I must also extend my thanks to the following people who helped in the production stage: Shadee Elmasry for encouraging me to choose the particular area of study, Malik A. Shaheen for his amazing insights and overall help, Kashif Zakiuddin for his general advice and help with identifying sources, Ussra Kadiri for all the inspiration and encouragement, my first supervisor, Gavin Picken, for his help in the initial stages, Sandra Fahy for her suggestions, Anees Lodhi for his advice on the introduction, Lucy Stuart for her help with the map, Mustafa Shah for his help with the sources, in addition to all the people who helped foster ideas: Amirjan Malik, Taniem Mueen and Mansoor Khan, Imad Ahmed, Abdulfattah Hussain, Abdulmumin Hussain, Adel Mozammel, Tahir Saeed, Imran Khan, and Shaist Khan. Teddi Dols for her advice and patience with my delays and Atef Alshaer for his steadfast help and encouragement.