A large long-term project such as the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures always owes its life to more people than can be possibly acknowledged in a formal way or even remembered. From the start of these acknowledgments let me globally thank all those who had part in the production of EWIC, in whatever measure, whose names may not appear here for whatever oversight of mine or limitations of such formal recognitions. The sequence of acknowledgments that follows does not represent an ordering of gratit…