Talk:Rub' al Khali

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Then the Rub' al Khali is larger than the Sahara? Wetman 04:30, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I think the Rub' al Khali is the largest sand desert in the world. The Sahara isn't exclusively sand; at least parts of it are wet and fertile enough to support large animal life. The Empty Quarter is completely uninhabitable, hence its name. --MIRV (talk) 04:36, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC)

The article says that the Empty Quarter has life are you refering to HUMAN LIFE? Either way the claim t be the largest is spurrious at best4.142.78.191 04:26, 1 September 2007 (UTC)eric

Since it's empty, the borders between Yemen/Oman and Saudi Arabia are kind of shady (dotted in a lot of atlases, although it's not exactly "disputed" because nobody lives there) - should this be mentioned in the article? – ugen64 05:04, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

The borders have been officially defined a few years ago. - Eagleamn 06:35, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

The article merely says it is one of the largest sand deserts in the world. Should it say that it is the largest sand desert in the world?

[edit] Article name

I've always thought the desert was known as the Rub' al Khali, even in English. Shouldn't this then be the main title for this article? I've never heard anyone actually refer to it as the Empty Quarter (which sounds pretty stupid anyway). Unless I hear any good arguments otherwise, in a couple of days I'll rename it.--Osprey39 02:00, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I second that. --Klaus Bertow 22:44, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. I've always seen it as Empty quarter in English and never as the actual Arabic "Rub' al Khali." This is in contrast to the common use of "Maghreb" in English. — ዮም | (Yom) | Talk • contribs • Ethiopia 22:23, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

What is the Wikipedia practice for transliterating the Arabic sounds hamza and ‘ayn? Is a straight apostrophe (') used for both? If not, the name of this article should have ‘, which is the conventional symbol for ‘ayn (but not hamza). Also, I thought Arabic words prefixed with al had a hyphen after the al in transliteration.

(Also, the pronunciation should preferably be given in IPA. Note that the ‘ayn is pronounced, and the a is long. But I'm not qualified to make a good transcription myself. 71.82.211.210 (talk) 05:35, 12 March 2008 (UTC)