Presentation
This is a long and complicated book, and I have made the following stylistic choices to facilitate what I hope is a smooth read and concise presentation:
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References for orations are consolidated in the Appendix of Orations. The footnotes refer the reader to the Appendix numbers (App. §).
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Dates and affiliations of orators are listed in Glossary 1. Dates are usually not listed within the chapters, although periods are broadly identified.
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Dates for all primary source authors are listed in the Bibliography. Within the chapters, they are listed only where the time period is relevant.
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Footnote citations are omitted when the reference in the volume’s narrative is to whole works; those are listed in the Bibliography.
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Footnote citations omit titles for authors for whom the Bibliography lists a single work; for authors with multiple works listed, an abbreviated title is added.
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Full diacritics are used for the transcription of Arabic words, books, and personal names, except in Chapter 12, where names of contemporary preachers, officials, and authors are transcribed in the popular media rendering; the Bibliography adds the transliterated surname in parentheses. Words commonly used in English—Qurʾan, hadith, Shiʿa, Sunni, Imam/imam, Shariʿah, jihad, Sunnah, Surah/surah, Ramadan, Muharram, madrasa, Sufi, Fatimid, Abbasid, and Hajj—are transcribed thus in their Merriam-Webster rendering.
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The definite article “al-” is mostly omitted from transcriptions of names.
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Side-by-side Arabic-English transcription is provided for oration segments. For single lines, the Arabic text is usually provided in the Footnotes.
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Vocalization and punctuation in Arabic prose quotations is minimal. Qurʾan and poetry verses are fully vocalized.
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Lower case is used for pronouns referring to God when the referent is clear from the context.