Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Koran |
KoranNoun1. Sacred writings of Islam revealed by God to the prophet Mohammed during his life at Mecca and Medina; divided into 114 chapters. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Koran" was first used: 1615. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | KORAN, n. A book which the Mohammedans foolishly believe to have been written by divine inspiration, but which Christians know to be a wicked imposture, contradictory to the Holy Scriptures. L. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Koran or, with the article, Al-Korân [the Reading]. The religious, social, civil, commercial, military, and legal code of Islam. It is rather remarkable that we call our Bible the writing (Scripture), but the Arabs call their Bible the reading (Korán). We are told to believe that portions of this book were communicated to the prophet at Mecca and Medina by the angel Gabriel, with the sound of bells. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Qur'an (also Quran and Koran, Arabic قُرْآن) is the Islamic holy book of Allah (The Divine i.e. God).
Practitioners of Islam, called Muslims, believe that the Qur'an is the eternal, literal word of God, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of 22 years. The Qur'an consists of 114 suras (chapters) with together 6,228 ayats (verses).
The content in the Qur'an makes reference to similar personages and events as the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Well-known Biblical characters such as Adam, Moses, Abraham, Noah, Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist are mentioned.
Muslims believe that the wording of Qur'anic text that we have today is identical to that spoken by Muhammad himself; created by God and delivered to Muhammad through Gabriel. Muhammad is supposed to have only delivered the Qur'an in spoken form during his lifetime; the word "Qur'an" (repertoire) is suitably translated as "recital" indicating that it cannot exist as merely a text. To ensure they remembered the text thoroughly, the faithful were required to (and many still do) memorize passages perfectly, down to the last syllable, and recite them frequently. A person whose recital repertoire encompasses the whole Quran is called a Qari' (قَارٍئ).
According to the dominant tradition, Muhammad's companions began recording all the Suras in writing before Muhammad died in 632 CE. Thus Muslims proudly cite, two different mechanisms were in place -- oral and written -- to help ensure that no corruption of the text took place over time.
There is almost no dispute among Islamic scholars that the text today is as it was when it was first written down. However, there has been consistent effort to ensure homogenity of the text to the extent that factions of certain "madhabs" (one of the 5 Islamic schools of thought) have destroyed copies with any variation making an obective & scientific study on the authenticity of Quranic codexes virtually impossible. The two most common versions of the Quran in circulation are the Warshun & Hafshun versions and recent discoveries of "Quran Graveyards" have thrown more light onto the subject of text evolution & transcribal disputes in early Islam. The Quran has been translated into many languages, but translations of the Qur'an from Arabic to other languages are not considered by Muslims to be actual copies of the Qu'ran, but rather are considered to be interpretive translations of the Qu'ran and they are not allotted much weight in debates upon Quranic meaning. The preferred method of interpretation of the meanings of the classical Arabic Quran is by searching for examples relevant to the passages from the Hadith -the collection of Islamic traditions from which the details of early Islamic history are derived.
Most Muslims believe that of the major religious works containing the word of God, (Qur'an, Torah and Bible) only the Qur'an has remained uncorrupted over the years. In recent years, a new development of Muslim theology has begun to latch onto the findings of modern biblical scholarship. Such scholarship has shown that the extant version of the five books of Moses was not written solely by Moses 3&1/2 thousand years ago, as traditional Jews and Christians had believed, but instead was edited together perhaps 2&1/2 thousand years ago from a number of previous sources; this is known as the Documentary hypothesis. Similar work has been carried out on the New Testament. According to religious Muslims, this is "proof" that Jews and Christians did not understand the importance of maintaining their own scriptures. Even so Islamic tradition does not permit disrespect of the Jewish & Christian scriptures, and belief in their worth is an article of the Islamic faith, though a "protestant" faction of Muslims are now calling such orthodox traditions into question. (See below for the discussion of the origin of the Qur'an.) Fundamentally however, all but the most progressive Muslims will agree that the Qur'an has no errors nor inconsistencies.
An analogue to Christian Creation Science has recently developed within Islam, in which fundamentalist Muslims believe that the Qur'an contains many statements that have been found to be consistent with discoveries made by modern science (see external links below). The statements within the Qur'an cover the origin of the Universe, the description of black holes, quatum physics, the water cycle, human embryology, geology, and many others.
Contemporary Scholarship and the Qur'an
Just as higher biblical criticism revolutionzed Judaism and Christianity by calling into question long held assumptions about the origins of the Bible, similar studies have done the same for the Qur'an. Parts of the Qur'an are based on stories of the Tanakh Hebrew Bible, the New Testament of the Christian Bible and other non-canonical Christian works. Differences of the biblical to the Qur'anic versions indicate that these stories were not taken directly from written texts but seem rather to have been part of the oral traditions of the Arab peninsula at Mohammed's time.
Islamic history records that Uthman ibn Affan collected all variants of the Qur'an and destroyed those of which he did not approve. Beside the known earlier versions from Abdallah Ibn Masud and Ubay Ibn Ka'b, there exist also some dubious reports about a shiite version which was allegedly compiled by Ali, Mohammed's son in law which he gave up in favor of Uthman's collection. Modern researchers assume that the differences between the versions consisted mostly of orthographical and lexicalic variants and differing count of verses.
Since Uthman's version contained no diacritical marks and could be read in various ways, around the year 700 started the development of a vocalized version. Today the Qur'an is published in fully vocalized versions.
The Hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) represent an additional view into the Muslim understanding of Islamic law. (It is roughly equivalent to Judaism's oral law in the Mishna and Talmuds.) Different schools within the various branches of Islam accept different hadith collections as genuine.
The interpretation of the Qur'an soon developed into its own science, the ilm at-tafsir. Famous commentators were at-Tabari, az-Zamahshari, at-Tirmidhi. While these commentaries mention all common and accepted interpretations, modern fundamentalist commentaries like the one of Sayyed Qutb show tendencies to stick to only one possible interpretation.
Today seven canonical readings of the Qur'an and several uncanonical exist. This sevener-system was laid down by Ibn Mugahid who tried to find the special characteristics of each reading and thus derived common rules by analogical reasoning (qiyas).
Robert of Ketton was the first to translate the Quran into Latin in 1143.
The proper rules (laws?) governing the translation and publication of the Qur'an state that when the book is published, it must never simply be entitled "The Qur'an." The title must always include a defining adjective, which is why all available editions of the Qur'an are titled The Glorious Qur'an, The Noble Qur'an, and other similar titles..
Translation of the Qur'an
See also
An American muslim Rashad Khalifa (d. 1990) claimed to have discovered intricate numerical patterns in the Qur'an involving the number 19. Refer to his article for more details.
Literature
- engl. translation by A.J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted, London 1961
- Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari, Jami al-bayan an ta'wil ay al-Qur'an, Cairo 1955-69, engl. translation ed. J. Cooper, Commentaries on the Qur'an, Oxford 1987
External Links
- Sure Guidance
- The Noble Quran
- The Quran Browser
- Textual Variants of the Qur'an
- A Muslim Response to "Answering Islám"
- What is the Koran?
- The Koran and Nature's Testimony
- The Bible, the Qur'an and Science
- The Qur'an in ebook format
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Qur'an."
Synonym: KoranSynonym: Quran (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Pseudo-Revelation | Noun: the Koran, the Alcoran; Lyking, Vedas, Zendavesta, Avesta, Sastra, Shastra, Tantra, Upanishads, Purana, Edda; Book of Mormon. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Koran |
| English words defined with "Koran": Al-, Alcoran, Alcoranic, Alcoranist, Alkoran ♦ Islam, Islamism ♦ Mohammedanism, Mohammedism, Muhammadanism, Muslimism ♦ Sunna. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Koran": Al Kader, Avenger of Blood, Azazil, Azrafil ♦ Balkis, Beder, Bells, Berzak ♦ Cauther ♦ Genii King ♦ Hadith, Hafiz ♦ Ibraham, Israfil' ♦ Karoon, Kaswa ♦ Leuh ♦ Moakkibat ♦ Potiphar's Wife ♦ Rushvan ♦ Salsabil, Sandschaki, Serat, Seven Bibles, Sonna, Sunnites ♦ Zakkum. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Koran" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Albanian (alcoran), Dutch (Koran), German (Koran, quran), Indonesian (newspaper), Serbo-Croatian (alcoran, koran), Swedish (koran). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Now, when a man collects books on a subject, they're usually grouped together, but notice, your King James Bible, your Book of Mormon, and Koran are separate, across the room in fact, from your Hebrew Bible and Talmud, which sit on your desk (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; writing credit: Arthur Conan Doyle; Nicholas Meyer) | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Arabic school, learning the Koran, Egypt. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Arabic tiles" by Ivan Raszl Commentary: "These tiles cover some walls of Beit Al Koran (House of Koran)." | "Sacred Page" by MESH'AL A. Commentary: "A page from the Holy Koran (quran), the scripture of Islam." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
The Koran | God loveth the clean. |
| O men, respect women who have borne you. | |
| What God writes on your forehead you will become. | |
| God loveth not the speaking ill of anyone in public. | |
| He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh. | |
| Your God is one God; there is no God but He, the most merciful. | |
| Wherever ye be, God will bring you all back at the resurrection. | |
| God obligeth no man to more than he hath given him ability to perform. | |
| Wheresoever ye be, death will overtake you, although ye be in lofty towers. | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, Germany will restore to His Majesty the King of the Hedjaz the original Koran of the Caliph Othman, which was removed from Medina by the Turkish authorities and is stated to have been presented to the ex-Emperor William II. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The individual administering the lashing traditionally holds a Koran under the arm and swings the whip using the forearm only. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Turkey | The Government does not permit private Koran courses. (references) |
Mauritania | These classes teach the history and principles of Islam and the classical Arabic of the Koran. (references) | |
Turkey | Students who complete the 8-year primary school may study the Koran in government-sponsored schools. (references) | |
Human Rights | Saudi Arabia | Shari'a courts base judgments largely on their interpretation of the Koran and the Sunna. (references) |
Macedonia | Police also reportedly forced the villagers to deface copies of the Koran and looted their homes. (references) | |
Saudi Arabia | A sentence may be changed at any stage of review, except for punishments stipulated by the Koran. (references) | |
Minorities | India | On March 21, in Punjab a Koran was burned and pig parts were thrown into a mosque by members of a Hindu group in a attempt to enrage Muslims. (references) |
India | The radical Muslim students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) exacerbated tensions prior to the riots by posting inflammatory posters about the Koran burning. (references) | |
India | In Maharashtra between March 9 and 11, Muslims reacted to the alleged burning of a Koran in New Delhi by going on strike and burning Hindu property, government vehicles, and a police station in Pune. (references) | |
Political Economy | Saudi Arabia | Crown Prince Abdullah has played an increasing role in governance since King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995. The Government has declared the Islamic holy book the Koran and the Sunna (tradition) of the Prophet Muhammad to be the country's Constitution. (references) |
Trade | Pakistan | Items on the "negative" list include: translations of the Holy Koran without Arabic text; goods bearing words or inscriptions of a religious connotation; obscene pictures, writings, or inscriptions; horror comics; obscene, subversive and anti-Islamic literature; products and by-products of pigs, hogs, boars, or swine; fireworks; tanks and armored vehicles; artillery weapons; revolvers and pistols of prohibited bores; parlor games; gambling equipment; sculptures, worked ivory, alcoholic beverages, hazardous wastes, rollable scrap, woven fabrics of cotton, woven fabrics of synthetic stable fibers, carpets and other floor coverings, articles of apparel and clothing accessories, bed linen, toilet linen and kitchen linen, tarpaulin and tents, curtains and other furnishing articles and antiques exceeding one hundred years in age. (references) |
Travel | Egypt | Modern standard Arabic, based on the language of the Koran, is heard on radio, TV, and in formal speeches. (references) |
Women | Jordan | Wife- battering technically is grounds for divorce, but a husband may seek to demonstrate that he has authority from the Koran to correct an irreligious or disobedient wife by striking her. (references) |
Malaysia | One Muslim women's NGO criticized the new requirement, stating that forced compliance with a state mandated dress code is not consistent with the values of the Koran, although the law is not known to have been enforced. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Guinea | Many young Muslims are sent to live with a Koranic master; in return for instruction in Arabic, Islam, the Koran, the children work for the teacher. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Robert Novak | There's been a great deal of opposition in the North Carolina legislature over a plan by the University of North Carolina to require reading of a book about the Koran for incoming freshman. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Koran" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.47% of the time. "Koran" is used about 79 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.47% | 77 | 37,929 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.53% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 79 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "Koran" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Koran | Last name | 400 | 22,139 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "Koran": chapter of the holy koran ♦ swear on the koran. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
koran | 886 | koran angel | 6 |
dan indonesia koran majalah | 26 | koran mp3 | 5 |
holy koran | 25 | english koran | 5 |
koran online | 24 | english in koran | 5 |
indonesia koran | 22 | deity koran | 5 |
koran tempo | 20 | koran search | 5 |
dan koran majalah | 20 | koran recitation | 5 |
kompas koran | 15 | koran prophecy | 5 |
koran download | 14 | koran majalah | 4 |
koran picture | 12 | arabic koran | 4 |
koran angel fish | 11 | koran religion | 4 |
koran text | 10 | koran republika | 4 |
islam koran | 9 | koran listen | 4 |
koran sex | 9 | koran translation | 4 |
koran summary | 8 | al koran | 4 |
koran bible | 8 | koran woman | 4 |
audio koran | 7 | quran koran | 4 |
bible koran vs | 7 | koran quote | 3 |
11 9 koran | 6 | history of the koran | 3 |
free koran | 6 | holy koran quran | 3 |
arabic in koran | 3 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "Koran"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | kuran. (various references) | |
Arabic | المصحف الشريف, القرآن الكريم (coran). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | коран. (various references) | |
Czech | korán. (various references) | |
Dutch | Koran. (various references) | |
Esperanto | Korano. (various references) | |
Farsi | قران (Quran), زدن (Abaction, Amputate, Attain, Beat, Bop, Bruise, Clout, Cut, Haze, Imprint, Inject, Lam, Light, Lodge, Mallet, Nail, Play, Poke, Pop, Shoot, Slap, Slat, Smite, Snip, Strike, Stroke, Whack). (various references) | |
Finnish | koraani. (various references) | |
French | coran. (various references) | |
German | Koran (quran). (various references) | |
Greek | κοράνιο, κοράνι. (various references) | |
Hebrew | קוראן. (various references) | |
Hungarian | Korán (abortively, alcoran, betimes, early, Quran, untimely). (various references) | |
Indonesian | quran. (various references) | |
Italian | corano. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | コーヒー豆 (call, call broker, call girl, call loan, call money, call rate, call sign, call-back, called, called game, choir exercises, chorus, chorus girl, coal tar, coffee bean, Cohen, cola, cold, cold beef, cold chain, cold chicken, cold coffee, cold cream, cold meat, cold permanent wave, cold war, cold wave, coleslaw, coop, coral, coral island, cord, corded velveteen, corduroy, corporate identity, corporated house, corporation, corpse). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | コーラン . (various references) | |
Pig Latin | orankay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | Alcorão (alcoran). (various references) | |
Romanian | coran. (various references) | |
Russian | коран (alcoran). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | koran (alcoran). (various references) | |
Spanish | Alcorán, Corán. (various references) | |
Swahili | Msahafu. (various references) | |
Swedish | koran. (various references) | |
Thai | คัมภีร์กุรอ่าน. (various references) | |
Turkish | kuran (alcoran, builder, qur'an). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | коран. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Arabic | 500-Modern | qur'an. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Koran" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Akurana, Cloran, Gorran, karan, Karna, Karsan, Keogan, Keron, Khojand, khoren, Kirsan, kirvan, Kisan, Klovan, koan, Koang, konar, Korangi, Korban, Kori, Korine, Korinna, Kornai, Korone, Koroni, korun, koruny, Koryak, Kotah, Kotra, Kouandi, Kozani, Kraan, Krajna, Kranjc, kronar, Kronas, Krynn, Kudan, Kurah, Kurdna, Kyra, Nkosana, Zofran. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "Koran" (pronounced 'Ko"ran'): Brachyuran, Floran, Macruran, moneran, Ophiuran, Sonoran, Sovran, sporran, Tyran, Varan. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: krona. | |
| Words within the letters "a-k-n-o-r" | |
-1 letter: kaon, karn, knar, koan, nark, okra, rank, roan. | |
-2 letters: ark, koa, kor, nor, oak, oar, oka, ora, ran. | |
-3 letters: an, ar, ka, na, no, on, or. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-k-n-o-r" | |
+1 letter: anorak, koruna, ryokan. | |
+2 letters: anoraks, korunas, outrank, ryokans, workman. | |
+3 letters: antirock, bankroll, corncake, crankous, croaking, forerank, forsaken, handwork, ironbark, kangaroo, karyotin, markdown, outdrank, outranks, overrank, reawoken, troaking. | |
+4 letters: bankrolls, breakdown, cankerous, corncakes, corncrake, cornstalk, crackdown, drawnwork, fancywork, foreranks, foreshank, forsaking, handiwork, handworks, ironbarks, kangaroos, karyotins, knotgrass, kurrajong, lakefront, markdowns, nonmarket, nonskater, outranked, overdrank, overtaken, paintwork, pickaroon, resoaking, snakeroot, snowmaker, synkaryon, thornback, urokinase, workmanly, workwoman. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Historic 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Names: Frequency 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Translations: Ancient 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
