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Arabic Script: Mightier than the Sword
Islam and the word of god
Muslims believe that the Holy Qur'an
was revealed by God (Allah) to the Prophet Muhammad through the
intermediary the angel Gabriel. The Prophet began to receive the
revelations in a cave outside Makka (Mecca) in present-day Saudi
Arabia and continued in Madina (Medina) where Muhammad had
emigrated with his followers in AD 622 (the first year of the
Islamic calendar). During Muhammad's lifetime and after his
death in 632 his followers memorized the revelation and passed it
on to members of the Islamic community orally, as Arabs had done
for centuries with their poetry. But the fear that the revelation
could be lost or corrupted prompted them to commit the
Qur'an to writing. Beautiful scripts were subsequently
developed for this
purpose.
The Qur'an
is divided into 114 chapters
(suras), each of which
is composed of a number of verses
(ayas). After the
opening (the fatiha), it
is arranged by length of
sura, beginning with
'The Cow' which has 286 verses. The last chapter
al-Nas
('Mankind') has six verses. Traditionally, children
learn the Qur'an by heart in special schools. As part of
their worship, Muslims recite its verses both in private and
publicly in
mosques.
Illustration:
Page from a bound Qur'an from the Ottoman Empire, AD
1824.