Trouble in biber with "ḥʼḤ"

Question

I am facing issues with special characters in biber. Specifically, this is about "ʼ", "ḥ" and "Ḥ". These are used for Arabic transcription.

I have tried rendering this with LuaLaTeX instead of PDFLaTeX, this solved the issue insofar as it renders the document, but the "ʼ" is replaced by a rectangle in the document.

I have also tried adding bibencoding = ascii and texencoding = ascii. Both resulted in the document not rendering.

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage[american]{babel}
    \usepackage{csquotes}
    \usepackage[backend=biber,
                bibencoding=utf8,
                language=auto,
                style=authoryear
                sorting=nyt, 
                maxbibnames=10,
                natbib=true, 
                idembib=false]{biblatex}
\begin{filecontents*}{ref.bib}
@book{suhrawardiPhilosophieErleuchtungHikmat2011a,
  title = {Philosophie der Erleuchtung =: Hikmat al-ishraq},
  shorttitle = {Philosophie der Erleuchtung},
  author = {Suhrawardī, Yaḥyá ibn Ḥabash},
  editor = {Sinai, Nicolai},
  date = {2011},
  publisher = {{Verlag der Weltreligionen}},
  location = {{Berlin}},
  isbn = {978-3-458-70032-6},
  keywords = {Early works to 1800,Sufism},
  langid = {german},
  pagetotal = {469},
  translator = {Sinai, Nicolai}
}

@book{avicennaMetaphysicsHealingParallel2004,
  title = {The metaphysics of The healing: a parallel English-Arabic text = al-Ilahīyāt min al-Shifāʼ},
  shorttitle = {The metaphysics of The healing},
    author = {Avicenna},
    editor = {Marmura, Michael E.},
    date = {2004},
    publisher = {{Brigham Young University Press}},
    location = {{Provo, UT}},
    isbn = {978-0-934893-77-0},
    keywords = {Early works to 1800,Islamic philosophy,Metaphysics},
    langid = {eng ara},
    pagetotal = {441},
    series = {Islamic translation series},
    translator = {Marmura, Michael E.}
}
\end{filecontents*}

\addbibresource{ref.bib}

\begin{document}
    \title{Some title}
    \author{}
    \date{}

    \maketitle

\nocite{avicennaMetaphysicsHealingParallel2004}

\nocite{suhrawardiPhilosophieErleuchtungHikmat2011a}
    \printbibliography[]
\end{document}

I have also looked at this question and this question. They are related, but don't offer a working soloution.

Furthermore, my ref.bib file is created by Zotero, so I would much prefer not having to change its contents.

Not that it matters a great deal, but in this constellation this is not actually a problem that only occurs with biblatex or Biber. The same error messages can be reproduced if you just say Suhrawardī, Yaḥyá ibn Ḥabash al-Ilahīyāt min al-Shifāʼ in the document body directly and don't load or use biblatex at all. — moewe, Dec 07 '20 at 21:39
The easiest way around the problem, IMHO, is to use a font that has the character, and not "build" the character. Try using fontspec + an appropriate font (e.g., Gentium or Brill, but any font that has the glyph will suffice.) — , Dec 07 '20 at 23:12
@BlackBird this is good advice, I did not realize that the font causes this problem. — Floris, Dec 13 '20 at 19:42
@BlackBird however, I can't manage to change the font. Can you write an answer expanding on this soloution? — Floris, Dec 13 '20 at 19:52
It's as easy as using a font package of a font that has those glyphs (\usepackage{gentium}, or libertine, or ebgaramond etc.) or using \usepackage{fontspec} \setmainfont{Linux Libertine O} and compile with xelatex or lualatex (be sure to remove the packages inputenc and fontenc). — , Dec 13 '20 at 21:44

egreg · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-07T20:49:07.113

You can help LaTeX and provide the representation of the unknown characters.

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@book{suhrawardiPhilosophieErleuchtungHikmat2011a,
  title = {Philosophie der Erleuchtung =: Hikmat al-ishraq},
  shorttitle = {Philosophie der Erleuchtung},
  author = {Suhrawardī, Yaḥyá ibn Ḥabash},
  editor = {Sinai, Nicolai},
  date = {2011},
  publisher = {{Verlag der Weltreligionen}},
  location = {{Berlin}},
  isbn = {978-3-458-70032-6},
  keywords = {Early works to 1800,Sufism},
  langid = {german},
  pagetotal = {469},
  translator = {Sinai, Nicolai}
}
@book{avicennaMetaphysicsHealingParallel2004,
  title = {The metaphysics of The healing: a parallel English-Arabic text = al-Ilahīyāt min al-Shifāʼ},
  shorttitle = {The metaphysics of The healing},
  author = {Avicenna},
  editor = {Marmura, Michael E.},
  date = {2004},
  publisher = {{Brigham Young University Press}},
  location = {{Provo, UT}},
  isbn = {978-0-934893-77-0},
  keywords = {Early works to 1800,Islamic philosophy,Metaphysics},
  langid = {eng ara},
  pagetotal = {441},
  series = {Islamic translation series},
  translator = {Marmura, Michael E.}
}
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  bibencoding=utf8,
  language=auto,
  style=authoryear,
  sorting=nyt, 
  maxbibnames=10,
  natbib=true, 
%  idembib=false
]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{02BC}{'}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{1E24}{\d{H}}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{1E25}{\d{h}}
\begin{document}
\title{Some title}
\author{}
\date{}
\maketitle
\nocite{avicennaMetaphysicsHealingParallel2004}
\nocite{suhrawardiPhilosophieErleuchtungHikmat2011a}
\printbibliography[]
\end{document}

How do you get the codes? Look in the log file when you get the error!

! Package inputenc Error: Unicode character ʼ (U+02BC)
(inputenc)                not set up for use with LaTeX.
See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...
l.65 \printbibliography[]
?
! Package inputenc Error: Unicode character ḥ (U+1E25)
(inputenc)                not set up for use with LaTeX.
See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...
l.65 \printbibliography[]
?
! Package inputenc Error: Unicode character Ḥ (U+1E24)
(inputenc)                not set up for use with LaTeX.
See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.

Alternatively, do

\usepackage{newunicodechar}
\newunicodechar{ʼ}{'}
\newunicodechar{Ḥ}{\d{H}} % \d is dot under accent
\newunicodechar{ḥ}{\d{h}}

While this solves the issue for now, it does not seem to be a real soloution, since the issue might just come up again with a different symbol. How does one find the hexa-decimal codes you are using? — Floris, Dec 07 '20 at 18:09

Trouble in biber with "ḥʼḤ"

1 Answers1