Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AL'KO-RAN, n. [Arab. al, the, and koran, book. The Book by way of eminence, as we say the Bible. See Koran. It is pronounced, I believe, by orientalists, alkoraum.]

The book which contains the Mohammedan doctrines of faith and practice. It was written by Mohammed, in the dialect of the Koreish, which is the purest Arabic; but the Arabian language has suffered such changes since it was written, that the language of the Koran is not now intelligible to the Arabians themselves, without being learned like other dead languages. – Niebuhr. Encyc.