Notes for Contributors

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ENTRY FORMAT

Language and Transcription. 

The Encyclopædia uses American spelling and punctuation.  All technical terms from languages using non-Roman alphabets must be fully transliterated with diacritics when mentioned for the first time. Please note that the Encyclopædia uses its own transliteration system of the Persian alphabet for words in New Persian and Arabic.

“Long” vowels:  ā    i     u (no macron on i or u, except for quoted passages and bibliographical data which must retain their original transliterations)

ē (majhul; optional for Afghan, Indo-Persian and early Persian)

ō (majhul; optional for Afghan, Indo-Persian and early Persian)

“Short” vowels:  a    e    o (e.g., ʿamal, feʿl, Rostam) 

Silent final –h:  -a (Arabic and Persian words: ḵāna, qeṭʿa)

ow  (in Persian words: Ferdowsi)

aw  (in Arabic words: Majd-al-Dawla)

ey  (in Persian words: keyhān)

ay  (in Arabic words and exceptionally in Persian words: Ḥosayn, ayvān/eyvān)

kesra before y:  i  (e.g., not Siyar al-moluk but Siar al-moluk)

kesra before geminate y:  iy  (e.g., adabiyāt)

Vowels. Do not use i and u for the “short” vowels of Persian or Arabic; use e and o, e.g., pesar, Foṣuṣ, meḥwar.

Arabic constructs. In persons’ titles or names, hyphenate and capitalize both elements (ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn, Fatḥ-ʿAli, Zinat-al-Nesā); in book titles, institutions, etc., use the pattern Nozhat al-qolub, bayt al-māl.  Drop al- before Arabic proper names, except in constructs, thus Biruni, Ḥallāj, but Ebn al-Aṯir, Nāṣer-al-Din.

For the transliteration of all other non-Roman alphabets, use the respective system of the Library of Congress.

Structure.

An entry should begin with a concise definition conveying the relevance, significance and range of the topic, e.g.:

HAMADĀN, province and major ancient city (see ECBATANA) located in the Zagros region of western Iran.

JAMŠID, mythical king of Iran.

ḴELʿAT, Arabic term used in the Iranian cultural area (Iran, India, Central Asia) to refer to gifts in general, but in particular to a robe of honor given by a superior, especially the ruler, to a subordinate.

PAHLAVI PAPYRI, documents written exclusively in Egypt during the Persian (Sasanian) occupation under Ḵosrow II between 619 and 629 CE.

SASANIAN DYNASTY, the last Persian lineage of rulers to achieve hegemony over much of Western Asia before the rise of Islam, ruled 224–650 CE.

XIONGNU (Hsiung-nu), the great nomadic empire to the north of China in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, which extended to Iranian-speaking Central Asia and perhaps gave rise to the Huns of the Central Asian Iranian sources.