A surah (or sura or surat) is a “chapter” of the Qur’an.
There are 144 surahs in the Qur’an. They are traditionally arranged from shortest to longest. Each surah is named for a word or name mentioned within it.
Most surahs begin with the Basmalah. Each surah is made up of many ayat (verses).
Most surahs are written in the first person voice of God or as an order from God to say the words (Say!).
The surahs cover many different topics as revealed to Muhammad.
This photo shows a manuscript (hand-written) Qur’an from the 10th century CE, with a gold heading to indicate the start of a new surah.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
Part 9 of a ten-part Quran, Khalili Collection of Islamic Art QUR 286.
