Koran
(kɒˈrɑːn, ˈkɔəræn)
Also 7 core, currawn, 9 coran, kuran.
[a. Arab. qurān, qorān recitation, f. qaraﻋa to read: cf. Alcoran.]
The sacred book of the Muslims, consisting of revelations orally delivered at intervals by Muhammad, and collected in writing after his death: it is in Arabic, and consists of 114 surahs or chapters.
| 1625 Purchas Pilgrims II. iii. v. 264 [Nicetas] Anathematiseth the Core, that is, Mahomets Scripture, and all his learning. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 271 Gunnet ..imposed that new Currawn as they term it upon the Persian. 1735 Bolingbroke Lett. Study Hist. iv. (1777) 97 Maraccio's refutation of the Koran. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxviii. III. 93 note, The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserve the Mahometan religion, above a century,..possessed the Koran, with the peculiar use of the Arabic tongue. 1813 Byron Corsair i. ii, And less to conquest than to Korans trust. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 316 To dispose him to question the infallible authority of the Korán. 1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle L. vii. 173 We reached a wall and gateway with inscriptions from the Kurán. |