bibliomancy

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomancy

According to the Oxford English Dictionary,[1] the word  

         bibliomancy  

(etymologically from βιβλίον biblion- "book" and μαντεία -manteía " 

divination by means of") "divination by books, or by verses of the Bible" was first recorded in 1753 (Chambers' Cyclopædia).  

Sometimes this term is used synonymously with stichomancy (from στίχος stichos- "row, line, verse") "divination by lines of verse in books taken at hazard", which was first recorded c. 1693 (Urquhart's Rabelais).

Bibliomancy compares with rhapsodomancy  

(from rhapsode "poem", "song", "ode")  

"divination by reading a random passage from a poem". 

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'Strogoff is indeed caught and handed over to the Tartars, and Ogareff alleges that Michael is a spy, hoping to have him put to death in some cruel way. After opening the Koran at random, Feofar decides that Michael will be blinded as punishment in the Tartar fashion, with a glowing hot blade.  

For several chapters the reader is led to believe that Michael was indeed blinded, but it transpires in fact that he was saved from this fate (his tears at his mother evaporated and saved his corneas) and was only pretending."