The southern part of Sudan gained its independence from the north in 2011. But in the period covered by this book the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan were a single political entity. Geographically bilād as-sūdān (“The Lands of the Blacks”) refers to a region much larger than the political entity of either, taking in all of West Africa and the northern part of Central Africa. It is possible that the definite article used to name “The Sudan” is a carry-over from this geographical understanding of the region. While this nomenclature is now uncommon, in this book I refer generally to “The Sudan” (rather than Sudan) because, for most of the period under consideration, this was the way that the English-speaking world apprehended the region that today comprises the two republics. Modern English transliterations of personal names for Arab and African people also are often different from those that were used historically. For the most part I have again conformed with the usage of the period, making a silent correction only where my written source was in error.
In the case of the collective names for different ethnic and cultural peoples, however, I have preferred modern transliterations, since these are generally more in keeping with how they describe themselves in their own languages. In the case of Moslem/Muslim, I have preferred the latter, although Ewen habitually used the former. This may seem anachronistic, since “Moslem” was generally the preferred usage in the period. But the spelling today is a sensitive subject for many adherents of Islam, as “Moslem” (pronounced “Mozlem” in English) signifies a person who is evil, rather than one who gives himself to God – in other words, it has become a prejudicial term of abuse.