THIS BOOK IS the product of several undergraduate courses and seminars I have taught during the last few years about conversion, urbanization, pilgrimage, and migration in the Middle East. Many of its concepts, insights, and ideas were developed and crystallized during the courses’ preparation and through discussions held with my students. I am grateful to them for their collaboration and feedback. Many friends and colleagues shared their vast knowledge with me and helped me finish this ambitious project. We have discussed different related subjects, and they shared publications with me and provided me with photos and illustrations: Prof. Mustafa Abbasi, Prof. Reuven Amitai, Arie Bar, Prof. Haim Ben-David, Dr. Katia Cytryn-Silverman, Dr. Eyal Davidson, Prof. Nahem Ilan, Dr. Raphael Lewis, Prof. Joseph Patrich, Ron Peled, Dr. Kate Raphael, Meir Roter, Dr. Doron Sar-Avi, Raffi Shalev, and Prof. Yinon Shivtiel. I also miss the fruitful discussions with my colleague Prof. Ronnie Ellenblum, who passed away a year ago. We seldom agreed, but his innovative, intriguing, and sometimes provocative ideas and insights significantly contributed to this research. I am always in debt to my great teachers, Prof. Yvonne Friedman and Prof. Yaacov Lev, who accompanied my career from its earliest stages. I often discussed this book with them, and they were always kind, supportive, responsive, and insightful.

Arc Humanities Press staff have been professional and helpful. I would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewer, whose comments were greatly beneficial and significantly improved the book's final version. I am also grateful to Marty Friedlander for editing the book's final version.

My family continuously tolerated me during the long process of this book's writing, including the challenging days of quarantine we experienced. My eldest son Yishay was the first to read the book and made many helpful and valuable comments. I want to heartfully thank him, my other children, Netta and Gilad, and especially my wife Bracha. It would have been impossible to bring this project to an end without their love and support.