A Primer of Religious Knowledge — Page 67
Publisher’s Note 67 Long vowels by: a for __ ٰ ___ or آ (like a in father ). i for ی __ ِ ___ or __ ٖ ___ (like ee in deep ). u for و __ ُ ___ (like oo in root ). Other vowels by: ai for ی __ َ ___ (like i in site ). au for و __ َ ___ (resembling ou in sound ). The consonants not included in the above list have the same pho- netic value as in the principal languages of Europe. As noted above, the single quotation mark ‘ is used for transliterating ع which is distinct from the apostrophe ’ used for ء. Terms which may not be familiar to the Western reader are italicized in the text and defined in the Glossary. We have not transliterated some Arabic words which have become part of the English language, e. g. Islam, Quran, and ummah. The Royal Asiatic Society’s rules of transliteration for names of persons, places, and other terms, are not followed throughout the book as many of the names contain non-Arabic characters and carry a local transliteration and pronunciation style. It should be noted that wherever the author had not given the translation of a verse of the Holy Quran, we have generally taken the translation from Hadrat Khalifatul Masih IV rta or Hadrat Maulaw i Sher Ali ra, but have changed ‘Thou’ and ‘Thee’ to ‘You’, and ‘Thy’ and ‘Thine’ to ‘Your(s)’, etc.