tated to the secretary or amanuensis, and by him transcribed and delivered to the people, to be either read or committed to memory, and afterwards it was carefully deposited in a wooden chest, after the manner of Moses' law.
Two years alter the death of Mohammed, Abu-beker collected the copies, written or traditional, and confided them to the care of Heph-za, one of the Prophet's wives. Othman, who succeeded him, in the 30th year of the Hegira, ordered in all the copies that were in circulation; and published a corrected one, for a perpetual standard, which is in substance the same as that now used by the Musulmans[1], in which the chapters are placed promiscuously, without regard to the order of time of the revelation, generally the longest first; so that great and deserved suspicion attaches to the authenticity of the Koran,
- ↑ See Gibbon.
