Transliteration
Many words in Arabic and other languages which used to be transliterated in the past are now part of English and Anglophones don’t have any difficulty reading them. Some examples include Muhammad and Ramadan. As this text aims at the general reader, such words are not transliterated and are written with their usual English spellings. When an Arabic word appears in the text for the first time, its transliteration and Arabic form are given in parenthesis ( ). Later on, it is used with its usual English spelling. Some words which are not easily recognized in English are always transliterated. Whenever an Arabic word is used without translating it into English, it is italicized on first use. It is not italicized in the following text. The text uses the American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA – L-C) system to transliterate Arabic letters into Roman ones. 1
Proper Names
The names of places have been changing over time. Generally, modern English name and spelling of places are used wherever possible. In the case of an extinct place, they are spelled as the locals called them at the time of that particular event. Some old names, for example, Constantinople, are so widely known that they are left as such. All significant names of a place are given for the convenience of the reader when the place is mentioned the first time.
People are mentioned by the name they are popularly known. The actual and full name of each individual is given when mentioned for the first time.
Calendar
All dates are expressed in the Gregorian calendar with very few exceptions. The whole year of other colander systems doesn’t match precisely with the Gregorian year. If a year from another system falls over two Gregorian years, that year of the Gregorian system is given where most of the year falls. The same applies to months.
Photographs
This site uses photographs to give the reader a better understanding of the text. Many of the pictures are the personal collection of the author. Others are in the public domain. If somebody has any copyright claims to any of the photographs, which might have been used unintentionally, he is encouraged to contact the author so the mistake could be corrected.
Maps
All maps used in this text are drawn by Zain Nadeem.
Citation System
This text uses the Chicago System of Citation. Some citations are slightly modified to give the reader convenience.
Some explanations
Bin (بِن) is the Arabic word for ‘son of’. Instead of translating it into English, it is used in the text per se. Ibn is a grammatical variant of Bin and is not used in this text. Abu (abū ابوُ) is the Arabic word for ‘father of’ and is used as such in the text. Similarly, bint (بِنت) is the Arabic word for ‘daughter of’ and is used as such.
Words or sentences written within brackets [ ] are those of the translator of a text which have been added by him to make it clearer to the reader.
Abbreviations
Hardly any abbreviations are used in this text. If an abbreviation is used, it is so widely recognized that it is a full word in its own merit.
Three styles to present history
History can be written in three basic styles; fantasy, fiction and factual. The most popular among consumers of history is the fantasy style. The writer knits a drama around historical events, which can be even presented in the form of a feature film. Generally, the writer doesn’t attempt to mention any reference in this style. An example is Mustafa Kamal’s film, “Muhammad”. The second most popular is fiction. In fiction style, a writer presents his essay, usually full of emotional paragraphs, but scanty in references. Very few references are given in the essay and most of the time they are irrelevant to the passage. An example is Philip K Hitti’s “History of Arabs”. This style gives the writer the liberty to express personal views without any hesitancy and the readership is generally like-minded people. The least popular is factual. In this style, the writer bombards the reader with references. Each and every fact presented in this kind of history has to be supported by a reference – ideally an original source. The writer acts as a moderator. He uses personal opinion scarcely and only in places where reference is absent. This text uses a factual style of history writing.
End Notes
- See table of conversion at https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/arabic.pdf