Notes on Style, Transliteration and Dates
For referencing, this volume follows the Chicago Manual of Style author-date in-text citation system.
Arabic words and names are transliterated according to the system used in Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Islam Three, which is also adopted in the Journal for Islamic Ethics (JIE):
Consonants: ʾ, b, t, th, j, ḥ, kh, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, ʿ, gh, f, q, k, l, m, n, h, w, y.Short vowels: a, i, u.Long vowels: ā, ī, ū.Diphtongs: aw, ay.Tāʾ marbūṭa: -a, -at (construct state).
While classical proper names are fully transliterated (e.g. al-Ghazālī), modern names, i.e. since 1800, are left without transliteration, and their official or common spellings are adopted (e.g. Ahmad Amin instead of Aḥmad Amīn). The “l” of the definite article “al-” is always retained, regardless of whether it is assimilated in pronunciation to the initial consonant of the word to which it is attached (idghām).
Common words, like Qurʾan, Muhammad (the Prophet), Sharia, and Sufism, are not transliterated, unless found so in original citations.
As for the name of the philosopher under study, we spell his name as he first did when he published in French, i.e. Taha Abderrahmane, without transliteration. However, it should be noted that his first name is Abderrahmane, as appears from letters in Latin script regarding his first published PhD thesis in French in 1979 and his second State PhD in 1985; his family name is Taha. In English, “Abderrahmane” is used as the family name by which he is referred to in the text. In the Arabic section, he is often referred to by his first name “Taha,” since it is common to refer to his thought as “Tahaʾian” (ṭahāʾiyya) instead of “Abderrahmanian.” In some publications, however scarce they are, the name appears as Taha Abdul Rahman, or Abdurrahman Taha. In the bibliography and references, we give a full transliteration of his name for his Arabic works, i.e. Ṭāha ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, in order to match the language of the publication.
The dates given in this volume are Common Era (CE) dates. If two dates are provided (e.g. 505/1111), the first one is the year according to the Islamic Hijri calendar (AH) and the second, the CE date. For all dates after 1800 only the CE date is provided.