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Title: Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an

Subtitle: Islam and the Founders

Author: Denise A. Spellberg

Narrator: Jo Anna Perrin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-21-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In this original and illuminating book, Denise A. Spellberg reveals a little-known but crucial dimension of the story of American religious freedom - a drama in which Islam played a surprising role. In 1765, 11 years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur'an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America. But unlike most of them, by 1776 Jefferson could imagine Muslims as future citizens of his new country.

Based on groundbreaking research, Spellberg compellingly recounts how a handful of the Founders, Jefferson foremost among them, drew upon Enlightenment ideas about the toleration of Muslims (then deemed the ultimate outsiders in Western society) to fashion out of what had been a purely speculative debate a practical foundation for governance in America.

Critic Reviews:

"Fascinating.... Revelatory.... Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an breaks fresh ground." (The New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Not That Interesting

Boring compared to the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson was a philosopher and brought ideas in from all world views. Was he a Muslim, no. However, he did pick and choose a little of this and a little of that. The book would have been better if it had more of Jeffersonâs writings and less opinions.

Five Stars

Great service and product.

In the preface the author talks about how cool it was that our country's ancestors were eager to ...

Not on the scale of the Jefferson Bible. I would have preferred his own version of what the Qur'an meant to him. In the preface the author talks about how cool it was that our country's ancestors were eager to learn about other major religions - and I quite agree - instead of wholesale turning away from the knowledge and message in the Qur'an and other holy books - we all must learn from all the great texts and move forward. Ban or disrespecting any set of people's beliefs shows little humanity. I guess I did get more out of this that I first thought. I need to read it closer now.

Setting the Record Straight

I take issue with the previous reviewer, Shaun Kennedy, who has perpetrated erroneous charges against Spellberg's meticulous documentation, while perpetrating three factual errors of his own. If he had read the book, and there's little evidence he has, he would have seen that the pivotal quote Jefferson noted from John Locke may be found in Chapter 3, p.106, note 183. The reference is directly to the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, volume 1, p. 548. Second, to confirm that Jefferson considered Muslim civil rights, Spellberg includes an illustration of Jefferson's actual handwritten reference to Muslims from John Locke reproduced on p. 107. (The original is in the Library of Congress.) Third, Kennedy is wrong about the source of the quotation, which he says is from "The Second Treatise" instead of Spellberg's correct identification of the quotation from Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689).