Quoted function in `define-key'

[Narendra Joshi]

The following piece of code is confusing me. It is from `rinari-minor-mode'.

(dolist (el (append (mapcar
                     (lambda (el)
                       (cons (concat "f" (second el))
                             (read (format "'rinari-find-%S"
                                           (first el)))))
                     rinari-jump-schema)
                    rinari-minor-mode-keybindings))
  (eval `(define-key rinari-prefix-map ,(car el) ,(cdr el))))


If I replace the last expression with:

(define-key rinari-prefix-map (car el) (cdr el))

why does it fail?

(cdr el) is (quote function-name) which is exactly the same as
'function-name.

--
Narendra Joshi