Fanny Bessard - Caliphs and Merchants: Cities and Economies of Power in the Near East (700-950)

I discovered early Islamic history in 2004, while attending a seminar on the Umayyad desert castles at the University of Lyon II. Since then, my fascination for the Near East, its incredible Roman and medieval heritage, its religious and cultural diversity has developed, nurtured by my PhD supervisor Jean-Michel Mouton. I received unwavering inspiration, guidance, support, from Hugh Kennedy, Chris Wickham, Alan Walmsley, Andrew Wilson, Olivier Callot. They each showed an incredible willingness to nurture new researchers. It is from these that I have inherited a passion for scholarship, collaboration, and for introducing students to the richness of the period.

I have been fortunate to receive academic and financial support from institutions in France (University Lyon II and Lyon III, EPHE Sorbonne), in the Near East (Institut Franais du Proche-Orient Ifpo, Department of Antiquities in Damascus, Palmyra, and Ammn) and Britain (SOAS, University of St Andrews, University of Bristol, University of Oxford). The Near Eastern institutions (Ifpo and DoA) played a vital role in this study; they provided support for my fieldwork, and gave me access to their unique and invaluable archives, without which the project would not have been possible.

The British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, who awarded me respectively a post-doctoral Newton grant and a Leverhulme Early Career fellowship were also instrumental in this project, offering security, time and funding to carry on my exploration of early Islamic cities and economies and publish the final results with OUP.

Thanks to the editors of Oxford Studies in Byzantium, and to James Howard-Johnston for his time and guidance.

My thanks also to colleagues and friends for kind and helpful readings, suggestions, and productive discussion during the course of this project: Khaled al-Asad, Sophie Berthier, Pascal Buresi, Fernando Cervantes, Paul Churchill, Kristoffer Damgaard, Fred Donner, Jean-Charles Ducne, Tim Greenwood, John Hudson, Richard Payne, Jean-Franois Salles, Mark Whittow, Donald Whitcomb. This list is not exhaustive, and my sincere thanks go to the many unnamed others for degrees of assistance during the journey. Thanks also to all the colleagues who shared with me their research and photographic material: Thilo Ulbert, Thomas Lepaon, Jacques Seigne, Jacques Thiriot, Eliezer Oren, Grard Charpentier, Olivier Callot, Denis Genequand, Jean-Charles Balty, Frdric Alpi, Julian Henderson, Oren Tal, Yael Gorin-Rosen, George Haggarty, Alan Walmsley, Danile Foy.

This has been a long project, beginning with my MA over a decade ago. The resilience to continue and to complete this project has been provided by the constant encouragement and faith of my family. It is to them that Caliphs and Merchants is dedicated.