Thomas Jeffersons Quran, Denise A. Spellberg
Thomas Jeffersons Quran, Denise A. Spellberg
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Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an
Islam and the Founders

Author: Denise A. Spellberg

Narrator: Jo Anna Perrin

Unabridged: 13 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/21/2017


Synopsis

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, eleven 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.

About Denise A. Spellberg

Denise A. Spellberg is a Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches courses on Islamic civilization and Islam in Europe and America.


Reviews

This is a compelling book about the history of religious tolerance in the early United States. this book overall paints the Muslims in a positive light, which is good. I learnt that the demonizing of islam has been rooted so deeply in the minds of European and American that it's so common to see pla......more

Goodreads review by Joel

Probably one of the best books of the year. So much research has gone into this book by this excellent scholar; the notes are filled with great references and so many other books to read. Although some parts can be a bit repetitive (especially about the different people debating about imagined Musli......more

Goodreads review by Roger

Despite his personal dislike of Islam, Thomas Jefferson worked tirelessly to protect the rights of Muslims and other non-Protestants to practice their respective faiths. His fight for religious equality took place against the widespread prejudice existing among Protestants for any faith other than t......more

أحببت هذا الكتاب .. يحمل الكثثير من المعلومات التي وصلت لي صورة الحياة و انسجام الأديان في الفترة الأولى من بناء الدولة الأمريكية بقيادة الأباء المؤسسين.......more

Goodreads review by Sascha

This book is both fascinating and necessary, giving our present day twin obsessions with misinformation about Islam, and mythologizing the founders of the nation an opportunity to be aired in tandem. what Spellberg has done here is provide an engaging and enlightening context for a simple but profou......more