Transliteration of words, names, and places is a vexing problem in a work such as this, dealing as it does, with Arabic, Ottoman, and modern Turkish, and a variety of states and institutions, many of which imposed, and changed, their own names, spellings, and even alphabets. Names, titles, and places I have rendered in the fashion most common to English speakers. Villages and towns not widely known outside the region, I have rendered in Modern Turkish or a simplified Arabic transliteration according to post-WWII borders. Names of individuals I have rendered into modern Turkish or Arabic transliteration based mostly upon the place they ended up after 1918, which is to say the Turkish Republic or various Arab countries. The names of Ottoman schools, institutions, ranks, and titles I have rendered in modern Turkish wherever they happened to be. I have also made some possibly quixotic choices that may seem logical only to me. A case in point is Yasin Paşa al-Hashimi, in which I give the Arabic transliteration of his name, and the modern Turkish rendering of his Ottoman-bestowed title. I have followed my ear in using Arabic given and family names: usually complete (Fawzi al-Qawuqji), sometimes with the definite article (al-Qawuqji) and occasionally without (Qawuqji), or with the given name only (Fawzi).