Derbend-ndâmeh or the History of Derbend. 455 
medial Hamzah (©) we have expressed by an apostrophe (), but in the beginning of the 
proper names, already well known to European Orientalists, we have often employed a 
to express & and 5. — The letter © is sometimes rendered by 44 (sharp), and sometimes 
by s. — Between ? and AL have made no difference, both being expressed by A. 
2 
The vowels we have rendered as follows: 4 expresses l; — ai and ay are used for 
i in bind — ou and sometimes & for oo in food; ow for the same in now, and & for 
the French u, as in une. The rest may be pronounced as they are in English. 
The article J| before the solar letters (url) &os>) IL have expressed by inserting 
a dash (-) between the double letters, as HET 4r-Rashid; D OUPS Radziud-din. 
In this way of expressing the article in which the elementary sound is L, 1 have follow- 
ed the orthoepy adopted in the east during more than a thousand years. In no Mu- 
hammedan country L in the Arabic article is pronounced before ©, %, >, >, 9, j, We, Ur 
ue; U?, L, LE, J, ©, which arc technically called in the grammer of the Arabic language 
solar letters: it is slided always into the letter following after it, so that a Hé eshdid 
(=) on the latter doubles its sound without the least notion of the existence of the ra- 
dical £. So in my method, which is wholly contrary to that generally adopted by Euro- 
pean orientalists, the little dash (=) between the double letters will indicate that the 
férst of the two is intended for the primitive L. | 
Before the lunar letters (all S2#), we have employed /, which in some cases is placed 
between two dashes (-I-) as slllunc Abdu-l-mendf. 
In the course- of the translations and texts, all that we have placed in parentheses 
are such additions as we have made in order either to explain the sense of the 
phrase or to propose our own reading of dubious words or expressions of the text; but 
whatever is placed between the marks | ] we consider either as an error, or as an addi- 
tion made by the scribe, having no meaning suitable to the place. The mark of inter- 
rogation (?) expresses our doubt. 
In publishing the text of the Derbend-nâmeh [ have adopted the orthography of 
my manuscript, which clearly expresses the idiomatical difference with which the Ader- 
bijanian dialect is distinguished among other idioms of the Turkish language. 
Kazan, | 
December 15. 
1844. | 
