[XeTeX] arabxetex and transliteration

[Robert Alessi]

Hi all,

I am about to start typesetting a critical edition of a Greek text which also has
a strong Arabic tradition.  Many Arabic variants from the manuscripts will be included
in my apparatus.

To typeset Arabic, I am have been using for a couple of years arabxetex package.
But to date, I do not know yet whether I have to typeset Arabic in transliteration or not,
as this decison  is up to the publisher.  So I decided to use arabxetex with ArabTeX
input convention, which is the recommended way by the author of arabxetex.

Everything is fine, apart from two or three unexpected results which I get with the
"trans" option of arabxetex package.

Here is what I have put in the preamble:
----------
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic]{Amiri}
\usepackage[voc]{arabxetex}
\SetTranslitConvention{dmg}
\newcommand{\ta}{\textarab}
\catcode`_=11 % for ^ and _ must not be active in the footnotes.
\catcode`^=11
----------

Then, in the document itself, whereas for example:
----------
\ta{al-.hiwAru 'l-_t_tAniyyu}
----------
results in: الحِوَارُ ٱلثَّانِيُّ as expected, the "trans" option of arabxetex package gives:
"al-ḥiwāru l-ṯṯānīyyu", instead of the expected: "al-ḥiwāru al-ṯāniyyu" or "al-ḥiwāru aṯ-ṯāniyyu".

Basically, which is wrong in the sequence I get is "l-ṯṯ" for the article preceding a solar letter and "ī" instead
of "i" for the "kasra" below nūn in the second word.

Does anyone have an idea about this problem? Am I missing something?

Many thanks in anticipation!

Robert