We follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 18^th edition, using the notes-and-bibliography (footnote) system for all references. For transliteration, we follow the system used by the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). A small number of justified exceptions to the standard IJMES conventions have been made for reasons of clarity, consistency, and readability; these are explicitly indicated and explained in the transliteration charts that follow.

Translation

1.     Translations must be provided for all foreign-language terms and phrases (including book, article, film, or song titles) that appear in the main body of the article, unless their meanings are widely known in English or they are cognate words whose meaning can be discerned with reasonable ease by English readers. Note: IJMES considers French a foreign language.

2.     Translations of foreign-language book, journal, article, film, or song titles in endnotes may be provided at the author’s discretion but are not required by IJMES. If translations are included, they should appear in parentheses following the title in the original language, with no italics and outside any quotation marks. Do not use a translation as the title.

3.     Translations should be composed artfully in clear, polished, idiomatic English. Unless the original text was written awkwardly according to the style conventions of the language in which it was written, it is not a skillful translation to put it in awkward English style, even if it is more “direct.” If you are deliberately attempting to translate linguistic infelicities present in the original text, use “[sic]” or an explanatory note in the text or an endnote to make that clear.

Transliteration

1. If an English term exists for a word, use it.
2. All technical terms from languages written in non-Latin alphabets must be italicized and fully transliterated with diacritical marks (macrons and dots), e.g., ʿashāʾ. A technical term is defined as a word for which there is no English equivalent, and that is not found in Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, or a multi-word phrase, excluding names and titles as detailed in #4 below. Diacritical marks, as well as the letters ʿayn and hamza, should be inserted using a Unicode font.
3.  Words found in Merriam–Webster’s should be spelled as they appear there and not treated as technical terms. They should have no diacritics, nor should they be italicized—for example, mufti, jihad, shaykh. See the IJMES Word List (PDF) for exceptions that preserve ʿayn and hamza, for example, Qurʾan, shariʿa, ʿulamaʾ, and Kaʿba. See the IJMES Transliteration Chart (PDF) for a character-by-character map of our transliteration system.
4. Diacritics should not be added to personal names, place names, names of political parties and organizations, or titles of books and articles. These words should be spelled in accordance with the IJMES transliteration system but without diacritics. However, ʿayn and hamza should be preserved in all these cases (except for initial hamza, which is dropped). Do not italicize transliterated proper names, including titles of organizations, and do follow English capitalization rules: for example, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun. Use italics for titles of books and journals only.
5.  Arabic or other non-English names of prominent political or cultural figures are spelled according to the IJMES transliteration system, but without diacritics. IJMES follows “accepted English spellings” for names of prominent figures, historical or contemporary, e.g., Gamal Abdel Nasser, Faten Hamama, Ruhollah Khomeini, Benazir Bhutto, Maimonides.
6. Place names with accepted English spellings should be spelled in accordance with English norms, for example, Baalbek, Damascus, Riyadh, Iraq.
7.  Follow English capitalization rules for transliterated titles. Capitalize all major terms, but not articles, prefixes, coordinating conjunctions, or prepositions (even when joined to pronouns). Use italics to indicate a book, newspaper, or periodical. Do NOT include diacritical marks but do preserve ʿayn and hamza. For example: Faysal al-Tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-Zandaqa; al-Nur al-Safirʿan Akhbar al-Qarn al-ʿAshir.
8. Avoid Anglicized plurals on fully transliterated words if possible: for example, fuqahā’ not faqīhs. Exceptions may be made if there is a good reason for it, such as when comparing numbered quantities or currencies. Anglicized plurals may be used on words that are found in Merriam-Webster’s and thus not fully transliterated, e.g., muftis.
9. When in doubt, follow the spelling of the term in the script of the original language, not its oral pronunciation. There are only a few exceptions (e.g., iḍāfa constructions), which are detailed on this page.
10. For colloquial transliterations, refer to an English-colloquial dictionary for that language. Use a consistent colloquial transliteration system, preferably one that is as close as possible to the IJMES system.

Consonants

Vowels

Diphthongs

Gemination (Doubled Forms / Shadda)

Special Endings and Signs