To Moslems the Koran is the very speech of God, given to Mohammed
piecemal of periods of revelations + recorded by faithful scribes or
memorized by devout followers. The last portion of the Koran did not
appear until 632, the year of Mohammed's death. The holy book was
standardized in 646 + all variant versions destroyed. It is the most
influential book ever produced by a single hand. The subject
matter is derived almost entirely from Christian + Jewish sources.
Its general message is monotheism, belief in Allah as the one true
God whom Mohammed is the last prophet, after Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses + Jesus. The 114 chapters, or Sures are
arranged not chronologically since on one knew the time of each
novelation but according to length. Written in rhymed prose,
the Koran is uneven in style.
Arabic has 17 "graphic shapes" which became 28 letters by
adding dots over, under + within some of the figures. Arabic
is written from rt. to left + as a rule most of the vowels are
left out.
- A Latin translation was made for the monastery fo Clugny
about 1143 but was not published until 1543 (Basel - Bibliander)
-Quarenic punctuation is an elaborate system in which 3
kinsd of marks are used
-marginal - letter an (E)
-O -denotes end of one Ayat + beginning of another
-b -denotes a full stop, i.e. end of a sentence.
Each Sura consists of a number of Ayats.
The language is Arabic - a Semitic language derived from the Aramean
alaphbet, + its gradual evolution, as a philologist puts it 'into a
curious shorthand' with its many ambgious abreviations of the historic letters,
is one of the most remarkable transformations known in the history of
calligraphy. And not less remarkable was the swift spread of this
once insignificant dialect, unaided by the printing press, to a
commanding postition among the great languages of the world.
Arabic like Perisan is read from right to left.
EN