(4). _Sura_, or chapter. The word Sura means a row or series, such as a line of bricks arranged in a wall, but it is now exclusively used for chapters in the Quran. These are one hundred and fourteen in number. The Suras are not numbered in the original Arabic, but each one has some approximate name, (as Baqr--the cow, Nisa--women, &c.,) generally taken from some expression which occurs in it. They are not arranged in chronological order, but according to their length. As a general rule, the shorter Suras which contain the theology of Islam, belong to the Meccan period of the Prophet's career,[54] and the longer ones relating chiefly to social duties and relationships, to the organisation of Islam as a civil polity, to the time when 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.