ARABIC LANGUAGE, TRANSLITERATION OF

Place-names:  Well-known place-names follow the conventional spellings; follow NG atlas, then the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. For conventional spellings, omit diacritical marks in text and on page maps though they appear on atlas and supplement maps.

For hyphens with compound place-names, follow the NG atlas; if the place-name is not in the atlas, omit hyphens both on page maps and in text.

Al, El, or other articles should be used without hyphens and capitalized at the beginning of a name but lower cased in the middle:

            Al Karak

            Al Aqsa

            El Gezira

            Kafr el Sheikh

Personal Names:  Do not use diacritical marks. The preference of the individual should govern the anglicized spelling of a personal name.