Personal names are generally given in the forms that will be most familiar to readers (e.g., Peter the Great instead of Pëtr Velikii). A few notable exceptions have been made, however, to bring anglicized names closer to their original form: for example, Chinggis for Genghis, Qubilai for Kubilai, and Tīmūr for Tamerlane. Similarly, place-names are generally given in their modern, official form, with a few exceptions made for places that are better known under their historic names: therefore, Cochin and Banquibazar rather than Kochi and Ichapore (but Melaka rather than Malacca). Batavia, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras have also been used occasionally to refer to the cities of Jakarta, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, as the historic names also refer to the larger Dutch and British colonies and presidencies of which they were the capitals. For clarity, the modern official name will be given once in parenthesis upon the first use of such historic names.
Transliteration and Romanization
Non-English words are italicized upon first use only. Words such as “jihad,” “khan,” and “Sharia” that have entered regular English usage have not been italicized, nor has any attempt been made to transliterate them in any systematic fashion (so jihad rather than jihād). Words and names from languages written in non-Latin scripts are rendered according to the following systems.
Arabic: as per the system of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Chinese: as per the Pinyin system of romanization, without the diacritics showing tones
Greek: as per the American Library Association—Library of Congress (ALA-LC)
Japanese: as per the Revised Hepburn system of romanization
Korean: as per the McCune-Reischauer system of romanization
Manchu: as per the Möllendorff transliteration system
Mongolian: as per the system of Nicholas Poppe’s Grammar of Written Mongolian, modified by replacing č, š, and γ with ch, sh, and gh
Ottoman Turkish: as per modern Turkish orthography, except that final unvoiced consonants are left voiced (e.g., Ahmed not Ahmet and Mehmed not Mehmet)
Persian: as per the system of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Russian: as per the American Library Association—Library of Congress (ALA-LC), slightly modified by removing all diacritic marks (e, ii, ts, iu, and ia for ë, iĭ, t͡s, i͡u, and i͡a)
Sanskrit: as per the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST)