Two hundred and three years ago this month, President James Madison approved the act of Congress purchasing Thomas Jefferson's private library. Intended to restock the Library of Congress after its previous holdings were destroyed by British arson during the War of 1812, the transfer of books from Monticello to Washington also highlights a forgotten aspect of religious diversity in early America.
Among the 6,487 books that soon traveled north, Jefferson's 1734 edition of the Qur'an is perhaps the most surprising.
Historians have attributed the third president's ownership of the Muslim holy book to his curiosity about a variety of religious perspectives. It's appropriate to view it that way. Jefferson bought this book while he was a young man studying law, and he may have read it in part to better understand Islam's influence on some of the world's legal systems.
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