Acknowledgements
The primal idea for this book began to trickle down in the second half of 2013. In 2014, we invited Metin Kunt’s colleagues and friends to offer their contributions. Time passed as ideas, analyses and essays evolved into this book in late autumn 2020. Unfortunately, Metin Hoca passed away on 3 December 2020 – a terrible loss to us while still finalizing the last touches before submission to Brill for publication. We cannot help but recall the irony of the famous Ottoman epigraph, “Kazây-ı mübremi tedbir ile tağyîr mümkün mü?” “Is it possible to intervene in the passage of the inexorable decree of providence by meddling?”
Metin Hoca was a genuinely kind human being, an erudite scholar and a wonderful teacher. Now it is with great difficulty that we need to make a little amendment in the title as our Festschrift turns into a memorial. We will miss him dearly.
This volume has been prepared with the magnanimous cooperation of Engin D. Akarlı. Engin Hoca took part in the conceptualization and the internal organization of the Festschrift. The editors would like to express their gratitude for his support. Another colleague to be mentioned is Tülay Artan, who contributed to this project by providing ideas that were crucial to shaping the project as well as by proof reading. We would like to thank Artan for her kind and generous assistance.
Finally, we would especially like to thank Franca de Kort and Maurits H. van den Boogert, who professionally handled the whole process of manuscript preparation at Brill with patience, and Selina Cohen of Oxford Publishing Services who meticulously read and elegantly proofread the manuscript.
In addition, we owe special thanks to Lloyd Cabasag and his team for diligently undertaking the process of the final design of this book.