Any scholar working on an Ottoman Turkish text faces the difficulty of finding a uniform transliteration system, since Ottoman Turkish, with its large proportion of Arabic and Persian vocabulary, poses a particular challenge in this respect.
In order to apply a transparent system, I have adopted the system of the Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) for Ottoman Turkish and the guidelines of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) for Arabic and Persian passages and terms. Any Arabic and Persian vocabulary integrated into the Ottoman Turkish language is transliterated in the same way as Ottoman Turkish (DİA), if the full transliteration of an Ottoman Turkish passage is given. If a comment on these passages is required, non-Ottoman terms are transliterated in accordance with the IJMES guidelines. Therefore, for instance, Arabic and Persian book titles appearing in Ottoman Turkish text may be different in my transliteration. Some proper names and terms appear in more than one transcription system. A term found in multiple languages (for example, Arabic taqwīm, Ottoman Turkish taḳvīm, and modern Turkish takvim; or Bāyezīd as the name of a historical mosque but Beyazıt Umumi as the shelf mark of a manuscript; likewise, Raġıb Pasha as the historical personality but Ragıp Paşa as the shelf mark of a manuscript) is transliterated according to the system applicable to the specific context. Quotations from editions of original texts that use a different transliteration system or that transcribe the text only according to modern Turkish are reproduced in the form used in the editions. Terms of Islamic scholarship are given in Arabic transliteration (e.g., adab in the place of modern Turkish edeb and all months of the lunar calendar). The names of well-known places such as Istanbul and Damascus are given in their accepted English spelling. Ottoman Turkish terms used in the plural are transliterated in parentheses in the singular (e.g., fermān instead of fermānlar), but the plural form is retained for Arabic and Persian terms. Common terms such as sultan (sulṭān), padishah (pādişāh), pasha (paşā), bey (beg), and agha (aġa) are written in their anglicized spelling. Translations are by the author unless otherwise stated.
When the precise date of an event seems particularly useful, the date is stated according to the Islamic lunar calendar along with the respective date in the Common Era (separated by a slash, e.g., 1000/1591–92, but enclosed CE dates in brackets within quotations, e.g., 1000 [1591–92], in order to make it clear that those dates are supplied by me rather than given in the original text).
For the conversion of calendar systems, the calculator of the Orientalisches Seminar, University of Zurich (http://mela.us/hegira.html) has been employed, supplemented by Faik Reşit Unat, Hicrî Tarihleri Milâdî Tarihe Çevirme Klavuzu, 5th ed. (Ankara: TTK, 1984).