IDEOLOGICAL PURISTS HAVE NO DOUBT been wondering if there is a larger political significance to the competing transliterations of the Arabic names now dominating the news. What does it signify when the Fox News ticker refers to Usama bin Laden while MSNBC calls him Osama? Is this a replay of the great Peking vs. Beijing transliteration battles of an earlier era? Are the al-Qaida types softer on terrorism than those who spell it al Qaeda?
The answer is that all the transliterations are equally correct and that none is necessarily–for political or linguistic reasons–to be preferred over any other. We say this not because we have been seduced by the pomo relativism of Stanley Fish, but on the authority of Lawrence of Arabia.
In the preface to the “Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” T.E. Lawrence explains the inconsistencies of spelling in his manuscript as follows: “The same place-name will be found spelt in several different ways, not only because the sound of many Arabic words can be legitimately represented in English in a variety of ways, but also because the natives of a district often differ as to the pronunciation of any place-name which has not already become famous or fixed by literary usage.”
He then reproduces a series of queries from his publisher with his responses:
Q: I attach a list of queries raised by F. who is reading the proofs. He finds these very clean, but full of inconsistencies in the spelling of proper names, a point which reviewers often take up. Will you annotate it in the margin, so that I can get the proofs straightened?
A: Annotated: not very helpfully perhaps. Arabic names won’t go into English, exactly, for their consonants are not the same as ours, and their vowels, like ours, vary from district to district. There are some ‘scientific systems’ of transliteration, helpful to people who know enough Arabic not to need helping, but a wash-out for the world. I spell my names anyhow, to show what rot the systems are.
Q: Slip 1. Jeddah and Jidda used impartially throughout. Intentional?
A: Rather!
Q: Slip 15. Bir Waheida, was Bir Waheidi.
A: Why not? All one place.
Q: Slip 20. Nuri, Emir of the Ruwalla, belongs to the ‘chief family of the Rualla.’ On Slip 23 ‘Rualla horse,’ and Slip 38, ‘killed one Rueli.’ In all later slips ‘Rualla.’
A: Should have also used Ruwala and Ruala.
Q: Slip 28. The Bisaita is also spelt Biseita.
A: Good.
Q: Slip 47. Jedha, the she-camel, was Jedhah on Slip 40.
A: She was a splendid beast.
Q: Slip 53. ‘Meleager, the immoral poet.’ I have put ‘immortal’ poet, but the author may mean immoral after all.
A: Immorality I know. Immortality I cannot judge. As you please: Meleager will not sue us for libel.
Q: Slip 65. Author is addressed ‘Ya Auruns,’ but on Slip 56 was ‘Aurans.’
A: Also Lurens and Runs: not to mention ‘Shaw.’ More to follow if time permits.
Q: Slip 78. Sherif Abd el Mayin of Slip 68 becomes el Main, el Mayein, el Muein, el Mayin, and el Muyein.
A: Good egg. I call this really ingenious.
Richard Starr is a managing editor at The Weekly Standard.
