Place names and transliteration are perennial problems for nations without states whose native language is not written in the Latin alphabet. This is especially true for the Uyghurs, who have used a variety of scripts in their written language historically. This book generally employs the American Library Association/Library of Congress (ALA-LC) standard to transliterate Uyghur words and proper names from the Arabic script spelling used inside China today. However, when referring to Uyghur activists, scholars, journalists, and so on, in exile outside China, it uses the transliteration that these people use in their country of settlement (i.e. ‘Rabiya Kadeer’ instead of ‘Rabiyä Qadir,’ ‘Isa Alptekin’ instead of ‘Äysa Alptekin,’ etc.). For Uyghurs in militant groups abroad, the book uses the ALA-LC direct transliteration of their names as spelled in their own documents and videos, which at times may reflect Arabic bastardizations of Uyghur names. For place names inside the Uyghur region, the book uses the Uyghur names exclusively rather than the Chinese versions (i.e. ‘Ghulja’ instead of ‘Yining,’ ‘Guma’ instead of ‘Pishan,’ etc.). Furthermore, it generally adopts a modified version of the standard used by the UN Group of Experts on Geographic Names in spelling. This system in Uyghur does not distinguish between long and short vowels, with the exception of the short ‘ü,’ does not distinguish between the regular ‘k’ and the guttural ‘q,’ uses ‘q’ for the ‘ch’ sound, and ‘x’ for the ‘sh’ sound. To reflect most maps and references in the English language, the book’s modified version of this system does not distinguish between short and long ‘u’ (i.e. ‘Urumqi’ instead of ‘Ürümqi’) and employs ‘sh’ instead of ‘x’ (i.e. ‘Karakash’ instead of ‘Karakax’). However, in some instances, I have chosen to use the version of the place name most recognizable to readers (e.g. ‘Kashgar’ instead of ‘Kashkar’).