A sourate or surate (RTL rear سورة, sourate; stone line; wall ) is a unit of the Coran made of a whole of Verset S. the word sourate is often translated by “chapter” by comparison with the chapters of books of the Bible.

There are in all 114 sourates unequal lengths: shortest contains 3 Verset the S and longest 286. They are presented in an appreciably decreasing order length, and not in the chronological order of the Revelation made by Allah with Mahomet (Muhammad). The very first one, the Fatiha is however very short and has a particular status. Called “the prolog” by translation of the term fatiha, it is presented in the form of an invocation and is recited at the time of the prayers.

The specialists distinguished two main categories of sourates: those which correspond to the period of Mecque, and those of the period of Médine. The part relating to the Mécquoise period generally treats report/ratio with God, the faith, spirituality,… while the Médinoise part treats as for it social aspect of the man.

Sometimes, of the parts of same a sourate were revealed with Mahomet (Muhammad) at times and in different places. Various islamologists or orientalists however reconstituted the probable order of promulgation of the sourates or started from sourates. Such classifications would make it possible, according to certain authors, to reveal the historical circumstances of prophecy and to clarify interpretation of it.

The Moslem tradition gave titles to the sourates (for example, “the night Voyage”, “the Light”, “Women” or “the Heifer”), which consist of extracted words and do not give in general an indication on their contents.

The erudite use supports their designation by their number in Roman numerals (of I with CXIV), followed that of their Verset S in Arab numerals.

List of Sourates

See too

External bonds

• Listening of the sourates with French and Arab translation.

• Listening of the sourates with translation and phonetics.
• a French-speaking translation of the whole of the sourates inter alia is proposed on line by various sites, in particular the Lexilogos site.

It should however be noted that, according to many Moslem authorities, Coran is untranslatable and can deliver its truth only in Arabic. This assertion raises objections however, in particular the fact that Islam progressed much more quickly and further the Arabisation.

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