Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

Qur'an owned by Thomas Jefferson

Find out why Jefferson owned a copy of the Koran in his library at Monticello.

Title pages of a copy of the Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Qur'an, which was the second edition of a 1734 translation by George Sale, a two-volume set published in London in 1764. This set was sold to the Library of Congress in 1815, and rebound by the Library in 1918. The daybook of the Virginia Gazette records the purchase of this edition by Jefferson in Williamsburg in 1765.1 There are no other known records of Jefferson reacquiring this work, suggesting perhaps that it survived the fire at Jefferson's family home, Shadwell, in 1770.

Title pages of a copy of the Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Title page of Thomas Jefferson's personal copy of George Sale's 1734 two-volume translation of the Qur'an is now in the collections of the Library of Congress.

In 2007, Jefferson's copy of the Qur'an was used by United States Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) to take his oath of office.

- Anna Berkes, March 20, 2009

Footnotes

  1. Virginia Gazette Daybooks, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.