KORAN

KORAN, the main Muslim holy book. It contains revelations sent by Allah through the Archangel Jabrail (Gabriel) to the Prophet Muhammad, who spoke them between 610 and 632. The revelations of Muhammad were recorded after his death as they were transmitted orally during his lifetime. The full edition of the K. canonical text was prepared and recorded on the Caliph Osman’s (644—656) order. The 1923 Cairo edition of the K. finally authorized the K.’s spelling and text structure rules, as well as the rules of reading it. The K. is written in Arabic and it consists of 114 entitled suras (chapters), which contain different number (from 3 to 287) of ayats. The K. is translated into many languages of the world. In Russia, the first K. in Russian appeared under the title Alcoran about Magomet (Mohammed), or the Turkish Law (1716) and was printed by order of Tsar Pyotr (Peter) I. The famous translations of the K. into Russian have been made by M.I.Verevkin, A.V.Kolmakov and K.Nikolayev. The first Russian Edition of the К. in Arabic was completed by the 1787 Decree of Empress Yekaterina (Catherine) II. Also known are the translations by D.N.Boguslavsky, I.Yu.Krachkovsky, V.M. Porokhova, G.S.Sablukov and others. In 1993, upon the Urals Bashkir People’s Centre initiative, the creative team (F.N.Baishev, D.Magadeyev, N.A.Suyargulov), based on the Arabic‑Bashkir translation previously done by D.Kinyelsky, prepared and released a full edition of the K. in both Arabic and Bashkir languages with the transcription of Arabic words by means of Bashkir letters. The book was called Koran Kareem and was subsequently reprinted in 2009. 76 suras of the Koran were translated into Bashkir and published by M.Yamalyetdin in the book entitled Koran Suras Poetic Interpretation (2015).