ABSTRACT
The Koran—qur’Ân, recitation, from Syriac qeryÂnÂ, lectio and lectionary—is the collection of the individual revelations, also called qurHn, which God commanded Muḥammad b. ‘AbdallÂh of Mecca to communicate to his people. Between ca. A.D. 610 and the Prophet's death in 632, a considerable body of sacred material was thus transmitted to the growing Muslim community but no official effort made to preserve and systematize it. Muḥammad's death, unexpected at least in its suddenness, ended the direct rule of AllÂh over His expanding state. The passage (Koran 87:6-7): “We [i.e., God] shall cause thee to recite, without forgetting,—(7). Except what AllÂh willeth; …” suggests some loss of early revelations. But it is unlikely that many prophetic utterances should have been forgotten, especially as there is evidence of Muḥammad's having had some of his later messages written down, and even of his bestowing editorial care on them. 1
