KORAES, DIAMANTES. See CORAY, ADANIANT1US.
Rtl RAN (Arab. from karat, to read), c= Hebr. Mara, the written book, or that which can and ought to be read: the Old 'testament, in contradistinction to Mishnah, or the code of the oral law], The Reading, by way of eminence; a term first applied to every single portion of Mohammed's " Revelations;" at a later period used for a greater number of these; and finally for their whole body, gathered together into the one book, which forms the religious, social, civil, commercial, military, and legal code of Islam. The Koran is also known under the name of Fortran (Chilli]. salvation, not from Helm Perak, division, as erroneously supposed); further, of Al-Moshaf (the volume), or Al-Kitab (the book, in the sense of "Bible"), or Al-Dhikr (" the reminder," or "the admonition"). The Koran is, according to the Moslem creed, coeval with God, untreated, eternal. Its first transcript. was written from the rays of light upon a gigantic tablet resting by the throne of the Almighty; and upon this tablet are also found the divine decrees relating to things past and future. A copy of it, in a book bound in white silk, jewels, and gold. was brought down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel, in the blissful and mysterious night of Al-Khadr, in the month of Ramadan. Portions of it were, during a space of 23 years, communicated to Moham med, both at. Mecca and Medina, either by Gabriel in human shape, "with the sound of bells," or through inspirations from the Holy Ghost, " in the prophet's breast." or by God himself, "veiled and unveiled, in waking or in the dreams of night." Traditions vary with respect to the length of the individual portions revealed at a time, between single letters, verses, and entire chapters or surahs (from Helm garak, line). The first revelation forms, in the present arrangement of the book, verses 1 to 5 of surah xevi., and begins with the words: " Read [preach], in the name of thy Lord, who has created all things!" Mohammed dictated his inspirations to a scribe, not, indeed, in broken verses, hut in finished chapters, and from this copy the followers of the prophet procured other copies —unless they preferred learning the oracles by heart from the master's own mouth. The original fragments were, without any attempt at a chronological or other arrange ment, promiscuously thrown into a box and a certain number were entirely lost, A year after the death of Mohammed, the scattered portions were, at the instance of Abu Bekr, collected by Zaid Ilm Than of Medina, •• from date-leaves and tablets of white stone, bones, and parchment-leaves, and the breasts of men," and faithfully copied, without the slightest attempt at molding them into shape or sequence, together with all the variants, the repetitions. and the gaps. This volume was intrusted to the keep
ing of Hafsa, one of the prophet's wives, the daughter of Omar. A second redaction was instituted in the thirtieth year of the Hedjrah, by caliph Othman, not for the sake of arranging and correcting the text, but in order to restore its unity: ninny different read ings being current among the believers. Reordered new copies to be made from the original fragments, in which all the variants were to be expunged, without, however, any further alteration, such as the suppression of certain passages, etc., being intro duced; and the old copies were all consigned to the flames. With respect to the succession of the single chapters 114 in number, no attempt was made at estahlishing continuity, but they were placed side by side according to their respective lengths; so that, immediately after the introductory Naafi or exordium, follows the longest chapter, and the others are ranged after it in decreasing size. They are not numbered in the manuscripts, bat bear distinctive, often strange-sounding headings, as: the cow, con gealed blood, the fig, the star, the towers, saba, the poets, etc., taken from a particular matter or person treated of in the respective chapters. Every chapter or small begins with the introductory formula: the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassion ate." It is further stated at the beginning whether the surah was revealed at Mecca or at Medina. Every chapter is subdivided into smaller portions (Ayair/i, Hebr. Oa. sign, let ter), varying in the ancient "seven editions" or primitive copies [of Medina (two), Mecca, Kufa, Basra, Syria, and the " vulgar editionl—reduced by NISIdeke to four editions—between 6,000 and 6,086. The number of words in the whole book is 77,639, and an enumeration of the letters shows an amount of 323,015 of these. Other. ency clical, divisions of the book are: into 30 ajza and into 60 ahzab, for the use of devrtional readings in and out of the mosque. Twenty-nine snrahs commence with certain letters orthe alphabet, supposed to be of mystical purport.