This chest the prophet left in
the custody of his wife Hafsa.
When we consider the way in which the _Koran_ was compiled, we cannot
wonder that it is so incoherent a piece as we find it. The book is
divided into chapters; of these some are very long; others again,
especially a few toward the end, very short. Each chapter has a title
prefixed, taken from the first word, or from some one particular thing
mentioned in it, rarely from the subject-matter of it; for if a chapter
be of any length, it usually runs into various subjects that have no
connection with each other. A celebrated commentator divides the
contents of the _Koran_ into three general heads: 1. Precepts or
directions, relating either to religion, as prayers, fasting,
pilgrimages, or to civil polity, as marriages, inheritances,
judicatures. 2. Histories--whereof some are taken from the Scriptures,
but falsified with fabulous additions; others are wholly false, having
no foundation in fact. 3. Admonitions: under which head are comprised
exhortations to receive Islamism; to fight for it, to practise its
precepts, prayers, alms, etc.
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