Penetration of Arabia

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. HE orthography of geographical place - names in this volume (with the exception of a few too familiar to be changed) follows the system adopted by the Royal Geo graphical Society. It is only necessary to remind readers that there are no mute letters: that j has its English value; and that uu is to be sounded ow, as in German. Other Arabic names and words are transliterated for the most part on a scientific system, for which I have to thank my friend, the learned Arabist, Mr. Guy Lestrange. A few, which have passed into the English language under unscientific forms, retain their familiar spelling in Special cases, e. G. The names of the Meccan Prophet, his son-in law, and the founder of the present Egyptian dynasty. Thus, among other inconsistencies, M ahomet, Mehemet, and M uhammad; Ali and 'alz'; Wahabi and Wahhdb, will be found in the text. I use Bedawin, Beda'wins, rather than the French form Bedouin. Neither one nor the other, of course, is Arabic. When quoting other writers, I always use their or thography, however inconsistent with that of my own text.