I.

Introduction

Koran (Arabic, al-Qur’an), the chief sacred text of Islam. The Arabic name indicates something “read” or “recited”. It may be an Arabicized form of a Syriac word. It is applied to the book which contains what Muslims believe are a series of revelations made by Allah (God) to Muhammad during his career as a prophet in Mecca and Medina in the first decades of the 7th century.