What did Thomas Jefferson write about Islam and Muslims in his personal letters and public writings?
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Executive summary
Thomas Jefferson owned an English translation of the Qur’an purchased in 1765 and collected other books on Islam; scholars argue that his reading informed a liberal, inclusionary argument that “neither Pagan nor Mahometan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth” (Jefferson citing Locke in 1776) [1] [2]. Recent scholarship (notably Denise Spellberg) contends Jefferson’s interest in Islam shaped his public defense of religious minorities and the idea that Muslims could be full American citizens, even as he and contemporaries often relied on European stereotypes and rarely encountered many actual Muslim residents [3] [4] [5].
1. Jefferson’s Qur’an and a personal habit of study
Jefferson bought an English translation of the Qur’an as a law student in 1765 and kept it among thousands of volumes he amassed; historians treat that purchase as evidence of broad curiosity about comparative law and religion rather than conversion or religious sympathy alone [1] [6]. Denise Spellberg and other modern writers highlight the book’s symbolic weight: Jefferson’s copy now stands as a marker of a Founding-era intellectual engagement with Islam [3] [7].
2. Explicit words: Jefferson’s notes on civil rights for “Mahometans”
In private notes from 1776 Jefferson recorded a paraphrase from John Locke — “neither Pagan nor Mahometan [Muslim] nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth” — and later celebrated Virginia’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom as meant to “comprehend” Jews and Mahometans among those protected [2] [4]. Scholars cite these lines as direct evidence Jefferson thought religious liberty should extend to Muslims in theory [8].
3. Public positions: inclusion framed as law and principle
Jefferson’s public writings and statecraft advanced a separation of church and state that he and later interpreters argued was consistent with tolerating Muslims’ civil rights; contemporaries used his positions to criticize him as an “infidel,” showing how arguments for pluralism could be politically weaponized [4] [2]. Spellberg’s work argues Jefferson and other founders used Islam as a conceptual limit-case—if the republic could include “Mahometans,” it was truly nonsectarian [3] [9].
4. Practical encounters: diplomacy and the Barbary context
Jefferson’s era included real conflicts with North African (“Barbary”) states, and his government alternated between treaties, tribute, and force—episodes historians use to remind readers Jefferson’s intellectual tolerance existed alongside geopolitical hostility toward some Muslim polities [10]. Available sources do not detail Jefferson’s private letters describing Muslims as a single uniform group; secondary accounts stress complexity and mixed attitudes [10] [5].
5. The gap between principle and lived reality
While Jefferson argued for theoretical inclusion, many Muslims were present in America as enslaved Africans or were later travelers; Jefferson’s defenders and critics note he rarely engaged with living Muslim communities in the way modern readers might expect [6] [11]. Scholars such as Jeffrey Einboden have shown Jefferson received Arabic manuscripts and encountered enslaved Muslims whose presence complicates a simple narrative of enlightened tolerance [11] [12].
6. Scholarly debate and modern interpretations
Contemporary historians differ on emphasis: Denise Spellberg and others foreground Jefferson’s Qur’an and notes as evidence he envisioned Muslims as part of the republic’s promise [3] [7]; other commentators caution that European stereotypes, legal precedents, and the rhetorical use of “Mahometan” shaped much of the founders’ thinking, so Jefferson’s views cannot be read as uniformly progressive in modern terms [13] [14]. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia summary underscores Jefferson’s “complex” position—expansive on religious freedom but implicated in racial and slavery debates that limited the reach of that freedom [5].
7. Why this matters today
Scholars and public commentators invoke Jefferson’s writings and library to argue that American pluralism was deliberate from the founding and that historical recognition of early Muslim presence can inform contemporary debates about inclusion [3] [8]. At the same time, historians stress limits: Jefferson’s theoretical tolerance coexisted with a society that enslaved many Muslims and often relied on Orientalist tropes—so his record is instructive but imperfect [6] [12].
Limitations: primary Jefferson letters and full manuscript citations are not provided in the collected items above; much of the interpretation rests on modern historians (Spellberg, Einboden) and institutional essays cited here [3] [11]. Available sources do not mention any direct Jeffersonian polemic celebrating Islam as a faith; they emphasize study, legal comparison, and political principle rather than religious endorsement [1] [6].