Koran

KORAN (Arabic, Qur'an "recitation"), the name of the sacred scripture of Islam, is regarded by Muslims as the Word of God, and, except in sura I.—which is a prayer to God—and some few passages in which Muhammad (VI., 104, I14; XXVII., 93 ; XLII., 8) or the angels (XIX., 65; XXXVII., 164 sqq.) speak in the first person, the speaker throughout is God. The rationale of revela tion is explained in the Qur'an itself as follows : In heaven is the original text (XLIII., 3 ; LV., 77; LXXXV., 22) ; by the process of sending down (tanzil), one portion after another (XXV., 34) was communicated to Muhammad, through the intermediation of an angel, who is called sometimes the "Spirit" (XXVI., 193), sometimes the "holy Spirit" (XVI., 104), and, later, "Gabriel" (only in II., 91, 92 ; LXVI., 4). A single portion was called either, like the entire collection, qur'an, i.e., "recitation" (possibly, the equivalent of the Aramaic gerycind "lectionary") ; or kitab "writing"; or sure "series." The last is the name given to the sep arate chapters, which are of very unequal length. The contents of the Qur'an are extremely varied. The theological passages em phasize the Oneness, the Almightiness and the Righteousness of God. Idolatry and the deification of created beings are condemned, The joys of heaven and the pains of hell are depicted in vivid, sensuous imagery, and warnings are given of the approaching advent of the last day and the judgment of the world. Believers receive general moral instruction, as well as directions for special occasions. Many passages deal with the ordinances of religion, such as prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage; or are of the nature of civil or criminal laws, concerning marriage and inherit ance, the punishment of adultery, theft, murder, etc.

Prophets.

The warnings which Muhammad addressed to his fellow countrymen were emphasized by stories of how God had punished those who rejected the message of his predecessors, the Prophets of the Old and New Testaments, and others. But the deviations from the Biblical narratives are very marked, and can in most cases be traced to the legendary anecdotes of the Jewish Haggada and the Apocryphal Gospels. Much has been written con cerning the sources from which Muhammad derived this informa tion ; there is no evidence that he was able to read, and his depend ence on oral communications may explain some of his misconcep tions, e.g. the confusion of Haman, the minister of Ahasuerus, with the minister of Pharaoh (XL., 38), and the identification of Miriam, the sister of Moses, with Mary (Miryam), the mother of Jesus (XIX., 29). It is certain that in Medina he had opportuni

ties of becoming acquainted with Jews of some culture, and there is linguistic as well as literary evidence for his indebtedness to members of the Nestorian Church. Even in the rare passages where we can trace direct resemblance to the text of the Old Testament (cf. XXI., 1o5 with Ps. XXXVII., 29; I., 5 with Ps. XXVII., ) or the New (cf. VII., 48 with Luke XVI., 24 ; XLVI., 19 with Luke XVI., 25), there is nothing more than might readily have been picked up in conversation with any Jew or Christian. His account of Alexander, introduced as "the two-horned one" (XVIII., 82) is derived from the Romance of Alexander, which was current among the Nestorian Christians of the 7th century in a Syriac version. Besides Jewish and Christian histories, there are a few references to early Arabian prophets, such as Salih (VII., 71) and Hal (VII., 63; XI., 52).

Arrangement of Chapters.

It is probable that the whole Qur'an was written down in Muhammad's lifetime, but not brought together as a whole or arranged in order. As it exists now, it con sists of 114 chapters, arranged generally (with the exception of the first, the Fatiha (lit. "opening"), in order of length, the longest coming first, the shortest (often the earliest in date) coming at the end. At the head of each chapter (szira) is a title, the place of its origin (Mecca or Medina) and the number of its verses (ayat) together with the formula, "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate" (except in IX.). For liturgical purposes the whole book is divided into 6o sections (qua) or 3o divisions (ajzei), each subdivided into a number of prostrations (ruk` a or sajda). Attempts have been made (by Noldeke, Grimme, Hirsch feld, Rodwell, etc.) to arrange the chapters in chronological order. Muhammad's position in Mecca, when he was only the despised preacher of a small congregation, was entirely different from that which he occupied after his migration to Medina (in 622), where he was from the first the leader of a powerful party, and gradually became the autocratic ruler of Arabia; and this difference appears in the Qur'an, and in the majority of cases there is no doubt what ever whether a part first appeared in Mecca or Medina, and the revelations given in Medina frequently take notice of contempo rary historical events; still in many cases it is exceedingly difficult to make out any strict chronological sequence.