The contents of the Koran as the basis of Mohammedanism will be considered under that head, while for questions more closely connected with authorship and chronology, we must refer to MottAmmEo. Briefly, it may be stated here. that the chief doctrine laid down in it is the unity of God, and the existence of but one true religion, with changeable ceremonies. "When mankind 'turned from aliffeybitOimes, God sent prophets to lead them back to truth: Moses, Christ, and Mohammed being the most dis tinguished. Both punishments for the sinner and rewards for the pious are depicted. with great diffuseness, and exemplified chiefly by stories taken from the Bible, the apocryphal writings, and the i\Iidrash. Special laws and directions. admonitions to moral and divine virtues, more particularly to a complete and unconditional resignation to God's will (see ISLAM), legends, principally relating to the patriarchs, and, almost without exception, borrowed from the Jewish writings (known to Mohammed by oral communication only, a circumstance which accounts for their often odd confusion), form the bulk of the book, which throughout bears the most palpable traces of Jewish influence. Thus, of ideas and notions taken bodily, with their Arabicized designations, from Judaism, we may mention—Koran = mikrali (reading); forkan (salvation); the introductory formula, Bismillah (in the name of God); Torah (book of law); Gan Eden (paradise); gehinnom (hell); haber (master); darash (to search the scriptures); rabbi (teacher); Sabbath (day of rest); Shechinah (majesty of God): mishnah (repetition, or oral law), etc. The general tendency and aim of the Koran is found pretty clearly indicated in the beginning of the second chapter: " This is the book in which there is no doubt; a guidance for the pious, who believe in the mysteries of faith, who perform their prayers, give alms from what we have bestowed upon them, who believe in the revelation which we made unto thee, which was sent down to the prophets before thee, and who believe in the future life, etc. To unite the three principal religious forms which he found in his time and country—viz.. Judaism, Christianity, and heathenism—into one, was Mohammed's ideal, and the Koran, properly read, discloses constantly the alter-. nate flatteries and threats aimed at each of the three parties. No less are certain abro gations on the part of the prophet himself, of special passages in the Koran. due to the• vacillating relation in which lie at first stood to the different creeds, and the concessions first made, and then revoked. "Witness the "Kiblah," or the place where the believer wIts to turn in his prayer, first being Jerusalem; fasting, being at first instituted in the ancient manner; forbearance to idolaters forming one of the original precepts, etc.
The language of the Koran is of surpassing elegance and purity, so much so that it has become the ideal of Arabic classicality, and no human pen is supposed to be capable of producing anything similan—a circumstance adduced by Mohammed himself as a clear proof of his mission. The style varies considerably; sometimes concise and bold, sublime and majestic, impassionate, fluent, and harmonious; it at atber times becomes.
verbose, sententious, obScure, tame, and prosy; and on this difference modern investi gators have endeavored to form a chronological arrangement of the Koran, wherever' other dates fail. But none of these attempts can ever be successful. Full manhood, approaching age, and declining vigor, are not things so easily traced ip the writings of a'man like Mohammed. The Koran is written in prose, yet the two or more links of which generally a sentence is composed, rhyme with each other, a peculiarity of speech. used by the ancient soothsayers = colien) of Arabia:—only that Mohammed used his own discretion in remodeling its form, and freeing it from conventional fetters; and thus the rhyme of the Koran became an entirely distinctive rhyme. Refrains are intro duced in some suralis; and plays upon words are not disdained.
The outward reverence in which the Koran is held throughout Mohammedanism is exceedingly great. It is never held below the girdle. never touched without previous purification; and an injunction to that effect is generally found on the cover which over laps the boards, according to eastern binding. It is consulted on weighty matters; sen tences from it are inscribed on banners, doors, etc. Great lavishness is also displayed upon the material and the binding of the sacred volume. The copies for the wealthy are sometimes written in gold, and the covers blaze with gold and precious stones. Noth ing also is more hateful in the eyes of a Moslem than to see the book in the hands of an unbeliever.
The Koran has been commented upon so often that the names of the commentators alone would fill volumes. Thus, the library of Tripoli, in Syria, is reported to have once contained no less than 20,000 different commentaries. The most renowned are those of Saurachshari (died 539 a.), 685 or 716 m). Malialli (died 870 it.), and Soynti (died 911 a.). The principal editions are those of hlinkelmann (hamburg, 1694); Maracci (Padua. 1698); Flfigel (3d ed. 1838), besides many editions (of small criti cal value) printed in St. Petersburg, Kasan, Teheran, Calcutta. Cawnpore, Sefampore, and the many newly erected Indian presses. The first, but very imperfect, Latin version of the Koran was made by Roliertus Retensis, an Englishman. in 1143 (ed. Basle, 1543). The principal translations are those of Maracci, into Latin (1698); Sale (1st ed. 1734); and Bothwell (1862), into English; Savary (1783). Garcin de Tassy (1829), Kasimirski (1840), into French; 3legerlin (1772), Wahl (1828), Ullmann (1840), into German; besides the great number of Persian, Turkish, Malay, Hindustanee, and other translations made for the benefit of the various eastern Moslems. Of concordances to the Koran may be mentioned that of Flfigel (Leip. 1842), and the Noojoom-ool-Foorkan (Calcutta. 1811). Of authorities whose works may be consulted on the Koran,we will chiefly name Maracci, Sale, Savary, Wahl, Geiger, Amari, Sprenger, Muir, Weil, Niildeke.