Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/649

* KORAN. 589 KORDOFAN. iiig relation in which he at first stood to the dif- lereut creeds. The language of the Koran has become the ideal of classical Arabic, and no human pen is supposed to be cajiable of producing anvthing similar: a circumstance adduced by Jlohanimed himself, as a clear proof of his mission. The style varies considerably; in the earlier suras concise and bold, sublime and majestic, impas- sioned, fluent, and harmonious; in the later ones verbose, sententious, obscure, tame, and prosy. There are passages of great beauty and power suggesting the Hebrew prophets. By means of the dill'erence in st^ie between the earlier and later suras modern investigators have endeavored to form a chronological arrangement. A gen- eral consensus has now been arrived at ; though questions of detail must always remain in dis- ]>ute, as many of the suras are composite in char- acter. A great deal depends also upon internal evidence, which fortunately is found in consider- able abundance. Mohanuned, especially in the later years of his career, was in the habit of in- troducing allusions to events of the day. to dis- putations with .Jews and Christians, to his am- i)itions and aims, into his discourses ; and since, in addition to the Koran, we have the ci)])ious col- lections known as Hadith (q.v. ) containing ut- terances, sayings and doings, and decisions of Mohammed at the various periods of his career, it is in many cases possible to attach utterances in the Koran to specific occasions, and thus fix the age of the sura in which a certain expression or opinion occurs. The Koran is written in prose, yet the two or more links of which a sentence is generally composed sometimes rhyme with each other, a peculiarity of speech (called saj') used by the ancient soothsayers (kuhluln-l-ohen) of Arabia : only that ilohanuiicd used his own discretion in remodeling its form and freeing it from conventional fetters; and thus the rhyme of the Ivoran became an entirely distinctive rh^vnie. Refrains are introduced in some suras, and plays upon woids are not disdained. The outward reverence in which the Koran is held throughout Jlohammedanism is exceedingly great. It is never held below the girdle, never touched without previous purification; and an injunction to that effect is generally found on the cover whivh overlaps the boards, according to Eastern binding. It is consulted on weighty mat- ters; sentences from it are inscribed on banners, doors, etc. Great lavishness is also displayed U]ion the material and the binding of the sacred volume. The copies for the wealthy are some- times written in gold, and the covers blaze with gold and precious stones. The Koran has been commented upon so often that the names of the commentators alone would fill pages. The most renowned are those of Zamakiishari (died AM. .530). Beidhawi (died A. II. (iS5 or TIG). Mahalli (died A.ir. S70). and Suyuti (died a.ii. All). The principal editions Pie those of Ilinkelmann (Hamburg. lGfl4) ; Maracci (Padua. 1008) ; Fliigel (Leipzig. 1S83) ; besides many editions (of small critical value) printed in Saint Petersburg. Kazan. Teheran, Calcutta, Cawnporc, and Serampore, and by the many newly erected Indian presses. There is a chrestomathv with notes and vocabulary by Nallino (Leipzig. 1803). The first, but ' very imperfect. Latin version of the Koran was made by Robertus Retensis, an Englishman, in 1143 (ed. Basel, 1543). The principal translations are those of ^Maracci, into Latin (1098); Sale (1st ed. 1734, one of the best translations in any language, edited by Wherrv with additional mat- ter, 1881-80), Rodwell (2d ed., 1870), and Palm- er (1880), into English; Savarv (1783). Garcin de Tassv (1829), Kazimirski (1840), into French; "Megerlin (1772). W'ahl (1828), Ull- niann (1840), Grigull (1901), and Kenning in the Reelam Viiiversal-Iiibliotheic, into German; Reckcudorf into Hebrew (1857) ; besides a great number of Persian, Turkish, ilalay. Hindustani, and other translations made for the benefit of the various Eastern Jlohammedans. The attempt to reproduce the style and rhyme of the original was first made by .J. von Hammer (1811) ; this was improved upon bv A. Sprenger (1801-05), Fr. Riiekert (1888). aiid by M. Klamroth ( 1890). All of these are in German. The Sprrchcs and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammed, cho.sen and translated by Stanley Lane- Poole (London. 1882), is a selection from the best that is in the Koran. Of concordances to the Koran may be mentioned that of Fliigel (Leipzig, 1842), and the yojon-ol- Forkan (Calcutta, 1811) ; La Beaume, he Koran analyse (Paris, 1878), is a topical index to the French translations of Kazimirski and others. There are Koran lexicons by Dieterici (2d ed., Berlin. 1894) and Penrice (Lond<m, 1873). The introduction and notes to Sale's translation con- tain material that is still of value, though in large measure superseded now by XiJldeke, Ge- schichte des Korans (Gottingen, 1800) ; Weil, Ilistcrrisch-kritische Einleiiung in den Koran (Bielefeld, 1844); Grimme, Mohammed, 2ter Theil; Einleitung in den Koran; Ht/stenh der ko- ranischen Theologie (1895) ; Hirschfeld, ew Re- searches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Koran (Eng. trans. London, 1902). Consult also the lives of Mohammed and other works mentioned in the articles Mohammed and ilo- n.VMMED.VNISM. KORAT, ko-rat'. A town of Siam, situated 105 miles by rail northeast of Bangkok, the capital (Map: Siam. D 4). It is surrounded by a strong stone wall, and in its vicinity are several copper-mines and sugar plantations. Korat is the seat of a Siamese Governor, and has a popu- lation of about 7000. consisting of Burmese and natives of Laos and China. KORBAY, korTio-i. Francis Alexander ( 1S46 — ). .u Hungarian-American musician and com- poser. He was born at Pesth. in Hungary, and settled in Xew York as a teacher of singing and pianoforte in 1871. He was a pupil of Roger for the voice, and of Liszt for the piano, and for three years (1805-68) sang at the Hungarian Opera of Pesth. Subsequently he toured success- fully throughout Germany, England, and America as a niano virtuoso. His comjiositions. which in- clude yi(/)(i"'i?p, for orchestra; Le matin, arranged for voice and piano (but afterwards arranged for the orchestra) : and numerous Hungarian folk-songs and musical transcriptions generally, are held in high repute. KORDOFAN, kor'd'i-fan'. A province of the Egyptian Sudan (q.v.), situated between the White Xile and the Province of Parfur. and ex- tending from longitude 28° .30' to 33° E.. and from about latitude 11° to 10° X. Its area is estimated at about 95.000 square miles. The sur- face is flat, with a few isolated hills. During the