he was consolidating his power at Madina. The best
way, therefore, to {56} read the Quran, is to begin at the end. The attempt
to arrange the Suras in due order, is a very difficult one, and, after all,
can only be approximately correct.[55] Carlyle referring to the confused
mass of "endless iterations, long windedness, entanglement, most crude,
incondite" says: "nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European
through the Quran." When re-arranged the book becomes more intelligible.
The chief tests for such re-arrangement are the style and the matter. There
is a very distinct difference in both of these respects between the earlier
and later Suras. The references to historical events sometimes give a clue.
Individual Suras are often very composite in their character, but, such as
they are, they have been from the beginning. The recension made by Zeid, in
the reign of the Khalif Osman, has been handed down unaltered in its form.
The only variations (qira'at) now to be found in the text have been already
noticed. They in no way affect the arrangements of the Suras.

5. _Sipara_ a thirtieth portion. This is a Persian word derived from _si_,
thirty, and _para_, a portion. The Arabs call each of these divisions a
_Juz_. Owing to this division, a pious man can recite the whole Quran in a
month, taking one Sipara each day. Musalmans never quote the Quran as we do
by Sura and Ayat, but by the Sipara and Ruku', a term I now proceed to
explain.

6. _Ruku'_ (plural _Rukuat_). This word literally means a prostration made
by a worshipper in the act of saying the prayers. The collection of verses
recited from the Quran, ascriptions of praise offered to God, and various
ritual acts connected with these, constitute one act of worship called a
"rak'at." After reciting some verses in this form of prayer, the worshipper
makes a _Ruku'_, or prostration, the {57} portion then recited takes the
name of _Ruku'_. Tradition states that the Khalif Osman, when reciting the
Quran during the month of Ramazan, used to make twenty rak'ats each
evening. In each rak'at he introduced different verses of the Quran,
beginning with the first chapter and going steadily on. In this way he
recited about two hundred verses each evening; that is, about ten verses in
each rak'at. Since then, it has been the custom to recite the Quran in this
way in Ramazan, and also to quote it by the ruku', _e.g._, "such a passage
is in such a Sipara and in such a ruku'."