Mongolian texts written in the Uighur-Mongolian script are transliterated according to Poppe’s system1 except for the letter ‘ǯ’, which is replaced by ‘j’. Oirat texts written in the Clear script are transliterated according to Yakhontova’s system.2 Chinese is transliterated according to pinyin. Sanskrit conforms to Edgerton’s dictionary.3 The Old Turk language (i.e., the pre-thirteenth century Turk language) is transliterated according to Clauson’s dictionary.4
For the reader’s convenience, most Mongolian and Tibetan names are written to conform with common English pronunciation. Moreover, the transliteration of original names is given only when a name or expression is used in the text for the first time and when the etymology or morphology of a specific term is discussed. Otherwise, simplified versions of words and people’s names are used in the text and reflect contemporary English pronunciation. For instance, qoyil
Regarding the dates given in Russian sources, except for the dates given by the authors in the archival documents, which conform to the Julian calendar used at the time, all other dates of well-known historical events and monarchs’ reigns are given according to the Gregorian calendar. For some historical events, a double date is used: for example, 27 August (Jul.)/6 September (Greg.).
Double quotation marks (“ ”) are used exclusively for non-literal, metaphorical and figurative expressions. In all other cases (quotations, meanings of words, specific expressions or phrases, etc.), single quotation marks (‘ ’) are used.
The following abbreviations are used in the text: Bur. = Buryat, Ch. = Chinese, De. = German, Greg. = Gregorian Calendar, Du. = Dutch, Fr. = French, Jul. = Julian Calendar, Khl. = Khalkha Mongolian, Ma. = Manju, Mn. = Classical Mongolian, Oir. = Oirat Mongolian (Kalmyk), Ru. = Russian, Skr. = Sanskrit, Tb. = Tibetan, Trk. = Turk.
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