why did thomas jefferson have a copy of the quran

Thomas Jefferson ( acquired a copy of the Quran ( to study comparative law, government, and world religions as a young law student. He purchased a two-volume English translation by George Sale in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1765, eleven years before writing the Declaration of Independence.

Key Reasons for His Purchase

• Legal Education. George Sale’s 1734 translation included a detailed introduction presenting Islam as a system of law and government. Jefferson shelved the volumes alongside his legal and political texts, using them to study global legal traditions, including topics like divorce law.
• Enlightenment Curiosity. Like other thinkers of his era, Jefferson believed a well-rounded scholar needed to understand major world cultures and histories beyond Western Europe. According to Smithsonian Magazine, his ownership reflected an intellectual interest in diverse religious perspectives rather than a personal conversion to Islam.
• Religious Liberty and Citizenship. Studying Islam informed Jefferson’s expansive vision of religious freedom. In his 1777 draft of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he explicitly argued for protecting the civil rights of “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination”.
• International Diplomacy. Later in his career, Jefferson drew on his broader reading about the Muslim world when dealing with diplomatic realities involving the Ottoman Empire and North African states, though he bought the book decades before the Barbary Wars.

What Happened to the Book

In 1815, Jefferson sold his personal library of nearly 6,500 books to restock the Library of Congress after British troops burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. His two-volume Quran remains preserved there today and was notably used by Representative Keith Ellison in 2007 when he took his oath of office as the first Muslim member of Congress.

(Note: A common internet rumor claims Jefferson bought the Quran specifically to study his enemies during the Barbary Wars, a point frequently repeated by users on Quora. Historians note this is inaccurate because he purchased the book in 1765 as a 22-year-old student, long before the United States existed or went to war in North Africa.)