Thursday, August 23, 2012

transliteration of Arabic

The best system of transliteration of Arabic, in my opinion, is the old system of the Library of Congress (used in Hanna Batatu's The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq).  The worst system by far is the Lebanese passport authority.  It renders my sister's name, Mirvat as "Mirvett" and my father's name, Ihsan as "Ihsen".  Kid you not.