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American Islamic scholar
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 “neithe...
Thomas Jefferson bought an English translation of the Qur’an in 1765 and kept it in his library; that ownership became a lasting symbol of his willingness to include Muslims within the circle of civil...
Thomas Jefferson embraced a capacious legal protection for non‑Christians, writing that his Virginia statute aimed to protect “the Jew…and the Mahometan,” and he owned a Qur’an—actions historians read...
Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of George Sale’s English translation of the Qur’an — purchased in 1765 while he was a law student — is best read not as evidence of conversion but as a window into an ...
Thomas Jefferson made a small number of explicit public statements about Islam but repeatedly defended the civil and political inclusion of Muslims; he wrote that his goal for religious freedom was to...
Thomas Jefferson’s most concrete primary evidence relating to Islam is material and documentary: the Qur’an he purchased in 1765 that later entered his library, plus his library catalogue, notes and p...
Several well-documented Founders — most prominently Thomas Jefferson — handled or discussed Islamic texts and Islam in ways that entered the public record; Jefferson purchased an English translation o...
Thomas Jefferson owned an English translation of the Qur’an, welcomed a Muslim ambassador to the White House in 1805, and wrote that his aim in protecting religious liberty was to “comprehend… the Chr...