ALCORAN, or Al-koran, the scripture or bible of the Mahometans. The word is compounded of the Arabic particle al, and coran or koran, derived from the verb cαταα or karaa, to read. It therefore properly signifies the reading, or rather that which ought to be read. By this name the Mahometans denote not only the entire book or volume of the Koran, but also any particular chapter or section of it; just as the Jews call either the whole Scripture, or any part of it, by the name of Karah or Mikra, words of the same origin and import.

Besides this peculiar name, the Koran is also honoured with several appellations common to other books of Scripture: as al Farkan, from the verb foraka, to divide or distinguish; not, as the Mahometan doctors say, because those books are divided into chapters or sections, or distinguish between good and evil, but in the same notion that the Jews use the word Per eh or Pirka, from the same root, to denote a section or portion of Scripture. It is also called al Moshaf, the volume, and al Kitah, the book, by way of eminence, which answers to the Biblia of the Greeks; and al Dhikr, the admonition, which name is also given to the Pentateuch and Gospel.

The Koran is divided into 114 larger portions of very unequal length, which we call chapters, but the Arabians sou∙ar, in the singular sura, a word rarely used on any other occasion, and properly signifying a row, order, or a regular series; as a course of bricks in a building, or a rank of soldiers in an army; and is the same in use and import with the Sura or Tora of the Jews, who also call the fifty-three sections of the Pentateuch Sedarim, a word of the same signification.

These chapters are not distinguished in the manuscript copies by their numerical order, but by particular titles, which are taken sometimes from a particular matter treated of, or person mentioned therein; but usually from the first word of note, exactly in the same manner as the Jews have named their Sedarim; though the word from which [7:2:389]some chapters are denominated be very far distant, towards the middle, or perhaps the end of the chapter; which seems ridiculous. But the occasion of this appears to have been, that the verse or passage wherein such word occurs was, in point of time, revealed and committed to writing before the other verses of the same chapter which precede it in order; and the title being given to the chapter before it was completed, or the passages reduced to their present order, the verse from whence such title was taken did not always happen to begin the chapter. Some chapters have two or more titles, occasioned by the difference of the copies.

Some of the chapters having been revealed at Mecca, and others at Medina, the noting of this difference makes a part of the title: but the reader will observe that several of the chapters are said to have been revealed partly at Mecca and partly at Medina; and as to others, it is yet a dispute among the commentators to which of the two places they belong.

Every chapter is subdivided into smaller portions, of very unequal length also, which we customarily call verses; but the Arabic word is ay at, the same with the Hebrew ûto/Ä, and signifies signs or wonders : such as are the secrets of God, his attributes, works, judgments, and ordinances, delivered in those verses; many of which have their particular titles also, imposed in the same manner as those of the chapters.

Besides these unequal divisions of chapter and verse, the Mahometans have also divided their Koran into sixteen equal portions, which they call Ahzab, in the singular liizb, each divided into four equal parts; which is also an imitation of the Jews, who have an ancient division of their Mishna into sixty portions called Massictoth. But the Koran is more usually divided into thirty sections only, named Ajza, from the singular Joz, each of twice the length of the former, and in like manner subdivided into four parts. These divisions are for the use of the readers of the Koran in the royal temples, or in the adjoining chapels, where the emperors and great men are interred. There are thirty of these readers belonging to every chapel, and each reads his section every day; so that the whole Koran is read over once a day.

Next after the title, at the head of every chapter, except only the ninth, is prefixed the following solemn form, by die Mahometans called the Bismallah, In the name of the most merciful God ; which form they constantly place at the beginning of all their books and writings in general, as a peculiar mark or distinguishing characteristic of their religion, it being counted a sort of impiety to omit it. The Jews, for the same purpose, make use of the form, In the name of the Lord, or, In the name of the great God; and the eastern Christians that of In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. But Mahomet probably took this form, as he did many other things, from the Persian Magi, who used to begin their books in these words, Benam Yezdan bakskaishgher dadar; that is, In the name of the most merciful just God.

There are twenty-nine chapters of the Koran which have this peculiarity, that they begin with certain letters of the alphabet, some with a single one, others with more. These letters the Mahometans believe to be the peculiar marks of the Koran, and to conceal several profound mysteries, the certain understanding of which, the most intelligent con fess, has not been communicated to any mortal, their prophet only excepted. Notwithstanding which, some will take the liberty of guessing at their meaning by that species of Cabala called by the Jews Notarikon, and suppose the letters to stand for as many words, expressing the names and attributes of God, his works, ordinances, and decrees; and therefore these mysterious letters, as well as the verses themselves, seem in the Koran to be called signs. Others explain the intent of these letters from their nature or organ, or else from their value in numbers, according to another species of the Jewish Cabala, called Gematria ; the uncertainty of which conjectures sufficiently appears from their disagreement. Thus, for example, five chapters, one of which is the second, begin with these letters, A.L. Μ. which some imagine to stand for Allah latiff magid, God is gracious and to be glorified; or, Ana li minni, i. e. to me and from me, viz. belongs all perfection, and proceeds all good; or else for Ana Allah alam, I am the most wise God, taking the first letter to mark the beginning of the first word, the second the middle of the second word, and the third the last of the third word; or for Allah, Gabriel, Mohammed, the author, revealer, and preacher of the Koran. Others say, that as the letter A belongs to the lower part of the throat, the first of the organs of speech; L to the palate, the middle organ; and Μ to the lips, which are the last organ; so these letters signify that God is the beginning, middle, and end, or ought to be praised in the beginning, middle, and end, of all our words and actions: or, as the total value of those three letters, in numbers, is seventy-one, they signify, that, in the space of so many years, the religion preached in the Koran should be fully established. The conjecture of a learned Christian is at least as certain as any of the former, who supposes those letters were set there by the amanuensis, for Amar li Mohamed, i. e. at the command of Mohammed, as the five letters prefixed to the nineteenth chapter seem to be there written by a Jewish scribe, for Coh yaas, Thus he commanded.

The Koran is universally allowed to be written with the utmost elegance and purity of language, in the dialect of the tribe of Koreish, the most noble and polite of all the Arabians, but with some mixture, though very rarely, of other dialects. It is confessedly the standard of the Arabic tongue, and, as the more orthodox believe and are taught by the book itself, inimitable by any human pen (though some sectaries have been of another opinion), and therefore insisted on as a permanent miracle, greater than that of raising the dead, and alone sufficient to convince the world of its divine original.

And to this miracle did Mahomet himself chiefly appeal for the confirmation of his mission, publicly challenging the most eloquent men in Arabia, which was at that time stocked with thousands whose sole study and ambition it was to excel in elegance of style and composition, to produce even a single chapter that might be compared with it.^[1. As the composition and arrangement of words, however, admit, of infinite varieties, it can never be absolutely said that any one is the best possible. In fact, Hainzah Benahmed wrote a book against the Alcoran with at least equal elegance; and Moselema another, which even surpassed it, and occasioned a defection of a great part of the Mussulmans. (Journ. de Scaν. tom. xiii. n. 280. (Euv. de Sçav. Nov. 1708, p. 404.) ]

To the pomp and harmony of expression some ascribe all the force and effect of the Alcoran, which they consider as a sort of music, equally fitted with other species of that art to ravish and amaze. In this Mahomet succeeded so well, and so strangely captivated the minds of his audience, that several of his opponents thought it the effect of witchcraft and enchantment, as he himself complains. Others have attributed the effect of the Alcoran to the frequent mention of rewards and punishments,—heaven [7:2:390]and hell occurring almost in every page. Some suppose that the sensual pleasures of paradise, so frequently set before the imaginations of the readers of the Alcoran, were what chiefly bewitched them; though, with regard to these, there is a great dispute whether they are to be understood literally or spiritually. Several have even allegorized the whole book.

The general design of the Koran was to unite the professors of the three different religions then followed in the populous country of Arabia (who for the most part lived promiscuously, and wandered without guides, the far greater number being idolaters, and the rest Jews and Christians mostly of erroneous and heterodox belief) in the knowledge and worship of one God, under the sanction of certain laws, and the outward signs of ceremonies partly of ancient and partly of novel institution, enforced by the consideration of rewards and punishments both temporal and eternal, and to bring them all to the obedience of Mahomet, as the prophet and ambassador of God, who, after the repeated admonitions, promises, and threats of former ages, was at last to establish and propagate God’s religion on earth, and to be acknowledged chief pontiff in spiritual matters, as well as supreme prince in temporal.

The great doctrine, then, of the Koran is the unity of God, to restore which point, Mahomet pretended, was the chief end of his mission; it being laid down by him as a fundamental truth, that there never was, nor ever can be, more than one true orthodox religion. For, though the particular laws or ceremonies are only temporary, and subject to alteration, according to the divine directions, yet the substance of it being eternal truth, is not liable to change, but continues immutably the same. And he taught, that whenever this religion became neglected, or corrupted in essentials, God had the goodness to re-inform and re-admonish mankind thereof, by several prophets, of whom Moses and Jesus were the most distinguished, till the appearance of Mahomet, who is their seal, and no other to be expected after him. The more effectually to engage people to hearken to him, great part of the Koran is employed in relating examples of dreadful punishments formerly inflicted by God on those who rejected and abused his messengers; several of which stories, or some circumstances of them, are taken from the Old and New Testaments, but many more from the apocryphal books and traditions of the Jews and Christians of those ages, set up in the Koran as truths in opposition to the Scriptures, which the Jews and Christians are charged with having altered; and indeed few or none of the relations or circumstances in the Koran were invented by Mahomet, as is generally supposed, it being easy to trace the greater part of them much higher, as the rest might be, were more of those books extant, and were it worth while to make the inquiry.

The rest of the Alcoran is taken up in prescribing necessary laws and directions, frequent admonitions to moral and divine virtues, the worship and reverence of the Supreme Being, and resignation to his will. One of their most learned commentators distinguishes the contents of the Alcoran into allegorical and literal : under the former are comprehended all the obscure, parabolical, and enigmatical passages, with such as are repealed or abrogated; under the latter, such as are clear and in full force.

The most excellent moral in the whole Alcoran, interpreters say, is that in the chapter Al Alraf, nvl. “Show mercy, do good to all, and dispute not with the ignorant or, as Mr Sale renders it, “Use indulgence, command that which is just, and withdraw far from the ignorant.” Maliomet, according to the authors of the Keschaf, having begged of the angel Gabriel a more ample explication of this passage, received it in the following terms: “Seck him who turns thee out, give to him who takes from thee, pardon him who injures thee; for God will have you plant in your souls the roots of his chief perfections.” It is easy to see that this commentary is copied from the gospel. In reality, the necessity of forgiving enemies, though frequently inculcated in the Alcoran, is of a later date among the Mahometans than among the Christians; among those latter, than among the heathens; and to be traced originally among the Jews. (See Exodus xxiii. 4, 5.) But it matters not so much who had it first, as who observes it best. The caliph Hassan, son of Hali, being at table, a slave unfortunately let fall a dish of meat reeking hot, which scalded him severely. The slave fell on his knees, rehearsing these words of the Alcoran, “Paradise is for those who restrain their anger.” “I am not angry with thee,” answered the caliph. “And for those who forgive offences against them,” continues the slave. “I forgive thee thine,” replies the caliph. “But, above all, for those who return good for evil,” adds the slave. “I set thee at liberty, rejoined the caliph; and I give thee ten dinars.”

There are also a great number of occasional passages in the Alcoran, relating only to particu!ar emergencies. For, in the piecemeal method of receiving his revelation, Mahomet had this advantage, that whenever he happened to be perplexed and gravelled with any thing, he had a certain resource in some new morsel of revelation. It wasanad-mirable contrivance of his to bring down the whole Alcoran at once only to the lowest heaven, not to earth; since, had the whole been published at once, innumerable objections would have been made, which it would have been impossible for him to solve; but as he received it by parcels, as God saw fit they should be published for the conversion and instruction of the people⅛ he had a sure way to answer all emergencies, and to extricate himself with honour from any difficulty which might occur.

It is the general and orthodox belief among the Mahometans that the Koran is of divine original; nay, that it is eternal and uncreated, remaining, as some express it, in the very essence of God; that the first transcript has been from everlasting by God’s throne, written on a table of vast bigness, called the preserved table, in which are also recorded the divine decrees past and future; that a copy from this table, in one volume on paper, was by the ministry of the angel Gabriel sent down to the lowest heaven, in the month of Ramadan, on the night of power·, from whence Gabriel revealed it to Mahomet by parcels, some at Mecca, and some at Medina, at different times, during the space of 23 years, as the exigency of affairs required; giving him, however, the consolation to show him the whole (which they tell us was bound in silk, and adorned with gold and precious stones of paradise) once a year; but in the last year of his life he had the favour to see it twice. They say, that few chapters were delivered entire, the greater part being revealed piecemeal, and written down from time to time by the prophet’s amanuensis in such a part of such and such a chapter till they were completed, according to the directions of the angel. The first parcel that was revealed is generally agreed to have been the first five verses of the 46th chapter.

After the new-revealed passages had been from the prophet’s mouth taken down in writing by his scribe, they were published to his followers, several of whom took copies for their private use, but the far greater number got them by heart. The originals, when returned, were put promiscuously into a chest, observing no order of time; for which reason it is uncertain when many passages were revealed.

When Mahomet died, he left his revelations in the [7:2:391]same disorder, and not digested into the method, such as it is, in which we now find them. This was the work of his successor Abu Becr, who, considering that a great number of passages were committed to the memory of Mahomet’s followers, many of whom were slain in their wars, ordered the whole to be collected, not only from the palm-leaves and skins on which they had been written, and which were kept between two boards or covers, but also from the mouths of such as had gotten them by heart. And this transcript, when completed, he committed to the custody of Hassa, the daughter of Omar, one of the prophet’s widows.

From this relation it is generally imagined that Abu Becr was really the compiler of the Koran, though, for aught that appears to the contrary, Mahomet left the chapters complete as we now have them, excepting such passages as his successor might add or correct from those who had gotten them by heart; what Abu Beer did else being perhaps no more than to range the chapters in their present order, which he seems to have done without any regard to time, having generally placed the longest first.

However, in the 30th year of the Hegira, Othman being then caliph, and observing the great disagreement in the copies of the Koran in the several provinces of the empire,—∙ those of Irak, for example, following the reading of Abu Musa al Ashari, and the Syrians that of Macdad Ebn Aswad,—he, by the advice of the companions, ordered a great number of copies to be transcribed from that of Abu Becr, in Hassa’s care, under the inspection of Zeid Ebn Thabet, Abdallah Ebn Zobair, Said Ebn al As, and Abd’al-rahman Ebn al Hareth the Makhzumite; whom he directed, that wherever they disagreed about any word, they should write it in the dialect of the Koreish, in which it was at first delivered. These copies, when made, were dispersed in the several provinces of the empire, and the old ones burnt and suppressed. Though many things in Hassa’s copy were corrected by the above-mentioned revisers, yet some few various readings still occur.

“The most prominent feature of the Koran, that point of excellence in which the partiality of its admirers has ever delighted to view it, is the sublime notion it generally impresses of the nature and attributes of God. If its author had really derived these just conceptions from the inspiration of that Being whom they attempt to describe, they would not have been surrounded, as they now are on every side, with error and absurdity. But it might easily be proved, that whatever it justly defines of the Divine attributes, was borrowed from our Holy Scripture; which even from its first promulgation, but especially from the completion of the New Testament, has extended the views and enlightened the understandings of mankind; and thus furnished them with arms, which have too often, though ineffectually, been turned against itself by its ungenerous enemies.

“In this instance particularly, the copy is far below the great original, both in the propriety of its images and the force of its descriptions. Our Holy Scriptures are the only compositions that can enable the dim sight of mortality to penetrate into the invisible world, and to behold a glimpse of the Divine perfections. Accordingly, when they would represent to us the happiness of heaven, they describe it, not by any thing minute and particular, but by something general and great,—something that, without descending to any determinate object, may at once by its beauty and immensity excite our wishes and elevate our affections. Though in the prophetical and evangelical writings the joys that shall attend us in a future state are often mentioned with ardent admiration, they are expressed rather by allusion than similitude, rather by indefinite and figurative terms than by any thing fixed and determinate. ‘ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’ (1 Cor. ii. 9.) What a reverence and astonishment does this passage excite in every hearer of taste and piety! What energy, and at the same time what simplicity, in the expression! How sublime, and at the same time how obscure, is the imagery!

“Different was the conduct of Mahomet in his descriptions of heaven and of paradise. Unassisted by the necessary influence of virtuous intentions and divine inspiration, he was neither desirous, nor indeed able, to exalt the minds of men to sublime conceptions or to rational expectations. By attempting to explain what is inconceivable, to describe what is ineffable, and to materialize what in itself is spiritual, he absurdly and impiously aimed to sensualize the purity of the Divine essence. Thus he fabricated a system of incoherence, a religion of depravity, totally repugnant indeed to the nature of that Being who, as he pretended, was its object; but therefore more likely to accord with the appetites and conceptions of a corrupt and sensual age.

“That we may not appear to exalt our Scriptures thus far above the Koran by an unreasonable preference, we shall produce a part of the second chapter of the latter, which is deservedly admired by the Mahometans, who wear it engraved on their ornaments, and recite it in their prayers. ‘ God! there is no God but he; the living, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizcth on him: to him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and on earth. Who is he that can intercede with him but through his good pleasure? He knoweth that which is past, and that which is to come. His throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both is to him no burden. He is the high, the mighty.’” (Sales Kor. ii. p. 30.4to edit.)

Alcoran is also figuratively applied to certain other books full of impieties and impostures. In this sense we meet with the Alcoran of the Cordeliers, which has made a great noise; wherein St Francis is extravagantly magnified, and put on a level with Jesus Christ. The Alcoran of the Cordeliers is properly an extract of a very scarce book, entitled The Conformity of the Life of the seraphiΛ father St Francis with the Life of Christ, published in 1510, 4to; since at Bologna in folio. Erasmus Albertus, being by the elector of Brandenburg appointed to visit a monastery of Franciscans, found this book; and being struck with the extreme folly and absurdity of it, collected a number of curiosities out of it, and published them under the title of the Alcoran of the Franciscans, with a preface by Martin Luther.