I am very grateful to the Centers for Near Eastern Studies and European and Euroasian Studies of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and their directors Leonard Binder and Ivan T. Berend, respectively. The funding provided by the two centers madeit possible for me to lead a seminar at UCLA on Muslim/Middle Eastern diasporas in Europe and North America during the spring of 2004. My regular presence at UCLA has enabled me to spend the necessary time in the library system there and to improve many of the entries in this dictionary. I am also grateful to the Department of Religious Studies, San Diego State University (SDSU); its chair Linda Holler; and faculty and staff members for providing me with their ongoing support and a friendly academic atmosphere. Many colleagues and friends have contributed to making this book possible. I am most grateful for the articles, books, citations, support, and advice provided during the past several years by Jere Bacharach, Irene A. Bierman, Anwar Dabbour, Dany Doueiri, Jonathan Friedlander, Alice and Jerry Gess, Iskandar Mansour, Isma‘il Poonawala, Georges Sabagh, Yona Sabar, Fouad Sleem, Irving Alan Sparks, and Hossein Ziai. Many other unnamed individuals have provided me with access to their library collections and rich insights. Special thanks are also due to Heidi Rutz, Hussam Timani, and Nabil Zeitoun; whenever these three invaluable friends came across an article or a book that could be of use for this dictionary or for my work on the Druzes in general, they enthusiastically informed me of their find. David Hirsch of the Charles Young Research Library at UCLA was most helpful in promptly providing the requested citations and alerting me to what and where additional material could be located. Appreciation is also due to J. Chase Langford of the UCLA Department of Geography for producing the maps. The dedicated assistance in data entry and other research tasks of Anika Farber during the summer of 2003 is most appreciated. I would also like to thank Elisa Quinn Hedrick for her diligent attention to detail in entering the changes made on the first draft, for editing the subsequent revisions, and for her overall patience and assistance in handling research tasks and text inconsistencies. Her dedication and interest in the different aspects of this project have indeed contributed greatly to its completion. Jon Woronoff, the editor of the Historical Dictionaries of People and Cultures series, is most appreciated for his thoughtful suggestions and insightful recommendations. Without his superb patience and professionalism, this book would have not been possible. Finally, it goes without saying, however, that I remain responsible for all shortcomings in this work. I am also responsible for excluding potentially important entries that lacked or that were still awaiting verification at the time the manuscript was completed.