The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1913 page)

Qur’
n
.

The scripture of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of
All
h
, revealed to
Mu
ammad
between the years 610 and 632 CE, recited by him, and subsequently recorded in written form.
In the Qur’
n itself, the word
qur’
n
means primarily the action of reciting; it can also in some places indicate an actual passage of scripture, or a part of the whole revelation, or the book; it is also mentioned together with the
Tawr
t
and
Inj
l
(3. 3; 9. 111). The word
kit
b
(book) is also used as a synonym (e.g. 4. 105). The Qur’
n is thought to ‘confirm’, but also supersede, former scriptures (10. 37). It is taken from umm al-kit
b, the pre-existent scripture preserved in heaven.
The Qur’
n in its present form consists of 114 chapters (
s
ras
) composed of varying numbers of verses (
ay
t;
sing.,
ay
), and roughly arranged in decreasing order of length. The first s