Isaiah Thomas’s 1806 Publication of the Quran:

Cultural Enrichment or Grim Warning.

By Donald L. Brake

Published in Bible Review Journal, 2024, Vol 11, Spring 2024 No.1, page 42-47.

For a collector of rare bibles and manuscripts in English and Greek, one might ask why do you treasure an 1806 first American edition of the Quran? Few realize its importance in American history and the anguish it caused the new nation. The challenge that the Judeo-Christian faith confronted from the seventh century was the battle for religious influence between the goal of the Quran’s Scimitar[1] and that of the Bible’s Cross.

“From the River to the Sea” or “From the Egypt River to the Great River,” [2]  which of these is the future for Israel—eradication or an everlasting possession? The former is the war cry of Islamic Hamas[3] and the Quran, the latter the Bible’s promise to Israel.

Longstanding conflicts, complex regional dynamics, and diplomatic quarrels mar the current geopolitical environment in the Middle East. But don’t be historically myopic, the conflict is not as often described superficially as a “territorial dispute.” It is a clash between religious cultures—one of peaceful co-existence (the cross), the other of bloody conquest (the scimitar).

The atmosphere of hope for a long-awaited peace agreement between Israel and some Arab countries was suddenly dashed in the autumn of 2023. In a thunderous eruption of chaos on the Jewish holiday, Simchat Torah, Hamas breached the boarders of Israel with a premeditated violence, leaving a trail of physical and emotional carnage that horrified the civilized world. Lifeless bodies were sprawled across the fields. Unimaginable scenes of torture, rape, and murder, while hostages were brutally carried off to an unknowable future. All choregraphed—sadistically photographed and sent world-wide for shock and awe.

Few realize this kind of barbarism did not start on October 7, 2023. The bloody, brutal Middle Eastern conflict began nearly thirteen hundred years ago with Jewish and Christianity’s nemesis—Mohammad and his Quran. The struggle affected the course of Jewish and Christian history for all time.

Long before the advent of Mohammed, Jews had settled in Arabia and founded the city of Medina. The Romans had expelled Jews from Israel in AD 70 and the relocation intensified after the failure of the Bar Kochba rebellion in AD 135. The Jews in a forced diaspora migrated to and were accepted into many Middle Eastern countries including Arabia.

Mohammed’s exposure to monotheism came from his Jewish mentors as they arrived in Arabia. He began proclaiming monotheism and gained a following. However, he became discouraged when his native city of Mecca turned hostile to his teaching. He fled to Medina in 622 called his hijera. In Medina, he found the Jewish enclave had prepared Arabs for his monotheism. As early as AD 610 he began telling polytheistic tribesmen that the angel Gabriel was speaking to him—and often even God himself.

The prophet was disappointed that he did not make more headway among Jews. After all, he reasoned, he had incorporated Judaism and accepted Jewish Scripture as well as their messianic hope.

Mohammad’s borrowing of Jewish teachings led him to establishment a church-state society to unite the tribes. While the general population refused Jewish monotheism, when they saw a local charismatic self-proclaimed Arabian prophet, although illiterate,[4] embracing monotheism, they abandoned polytheism for monotheism.

Mohammad assumed the Jews would immediately follow his teaching because it claimed he was fulfilling Jewish prophecy and messianic hope. He had looked at his own advent as the consummation of all that Judaism promised—he was the messiah. He even directed his prayers toward Jerusalem and observed their Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

But the Jews only mocked his eccentricities and inconsistencies. Jewish rejection of Mohammad’s “heavenly vision” convinced him to switch his practice of praying toward Jerusalem to praying towards Mecca.

Jewish rejection of his new religion moved him farther from Judaism. He plotted to rid himself of all Jews. The method to his sinister plot was forced conversions. New revelations from his angelic spokesperson called on him to begin his conquest of converting the Middle East to Islam even if force was necessary.

He began with local raids. As he found success, he widened his net of murderous conquest. His new war cry “Fight against them that believe not in God, nor the day of judgment, that forbid not to act what God hath prohibited, and his prophet hath forbidden… .”[5] “There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet” soon became a call for forced conversions. Today Allahu Akbar (God is Great) is used as the battle cry to justify killing infidels (anyone not accepting Islam).

As success came from Mohammad’s conquests, new additions to the Quran centered around rewards for jihad in the conquest of Jews, unbelieving Arabs, and Christians. “But as such [true believers] shall obey God’s commandments shall have a place of safety wherein to rest [paradise], with all sorts of fruits, in pleasant gardens, fitting orderly on delicious beds, with glasses full of drink, pleasing to the taste, which shall not make them drunk. Their wives (houri) (some translations say “virgins), white as fresh eggs (an expression referring to the fine color of European women’s skin).[6]

Soon after his death in AD 632, Christians and Jews were both considered infidels and were expelled from the Arabian Peninsula.

The destruction of Christians became an obsession for Mohammad’s barbarous conquests. He denounced Christians because they believed Jesus was the Son of God—polytheism, the greatest crime. The Quran records, “O prophet fight against the infidels, … hell shall be their habitation; … God shall punish them in this world; … Submit to Islam and have peace.”[7] Eternal war was declared on Christianity. So repugnant was his attitude toward the cross that he destroyed crosses wherever found—on clothing, as symbols of worship, or as artifacts.

Thus began fourteen centuries of Islamic attempts to conquer the world and make Islam and Sharia law the only religion. This worldwide Muslim campaign followed major battles that have shaped western religious history: Yarmuk 636; Tours 732; Hattin 1187; Tolosa 1212; Constantinople 1453; and Vienna 1683.[8]

 

Yarmuk in AD 636 was a battle between the Islamic forces of Rashidun Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. Khalid ibn al-Walid led the 24,000 Muslims to a bloody and decisive victory. The battle marked a turning point in the Muslim-Christian narrative expanding Islamic domination in the Levant (Syria, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon). Islam was on the march.

Tours in AD 732 was a decisive conflict with Charles Martel’s Frankish forces halting the advance of the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate’s army. This victory was crucial in preventing the spread of Islam into Western Europe preserving Christian influence in the region. However, Islam continued to be a major influence in the Mediterranean region.

Hattin in 1197 was another major victory for the Muslim forces. Saladin’s defeat of the Kingdom of Jerusalem profoundly affected European Christianity and prompted the third crusade. It is said he stole the “True Cross.”

Constantinople 1453 marked the end of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The triumph of the Ottoman Turks led by Mehmed II altered the European religions landscape. The West became the center of Christianity and paved the way for a shift of intellectual and cultural influence. The Mediterranean Sea became the personal pond of Islam to be used to control the flow of slave trade and international commerce.

But was America inoculated from the dangers of Islam? Thousands of miles from the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, America would seem to be out of the reach of the horrors of bloody Muslim conquests. Surprisingly the scimitar was raised to strike America.

Even though Muslim influence in Europe had plummeted by mid-eighteenth century, the Barbary states, a North African alliance (Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli) with an allegiance to the Muslim Ottoman Empire began a period of hostile acts.[ix] They were infamous for practicing state-supported piracy to exact tribute and ransom from weaker maritime powers. Brittan and France both paid tribute for protection. Once America declared independence from Great Brittan, American ships became fair game for the Barbary states. Daye Muhammad declared war on the United States and captured countless American ships. The financially challenged new independent America refused to pay ransom.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, ambassadors to France and England respectively met with Tripoli’s ambassador, Abdul Rahman Adja. Their demand for tribute was unreasonable so they refused. Abdul called upon Islamic law to justify Muslim jihad, and the hijacked ships continued to yield slaves for auctions.

In 1794 Algerian pirates captured more ships. This time the United States caved and paid the enormous tribute. Soon after Jefferson became president in 1801, Tripoli demanded a large sum followed by annual payments. When Jefferson refused Tripoli’s demands, Tripoli called for Islamic jihad against America.

After the first Barbary states war (1801-1805), some Americans began to realize the reality of the threat of Islam. They had faced the brutality of the Moors (expelled from Spain) who brought Muslim slaves to America in 1492. But North Africa is a long way from America and many concluded that a few slaves were not a threat to Christianity—but….

There was a very serious concern from a famous American Printer, Isaiah Thomas Jr. (1773-1819), who was motivated to warn an uninformed and unsuspecting American populace of the dangers of Islam and superiority of the Bible’s teaching to the Quran. Thomas was an American patriot who printed and published significant revolutionary ideas. He is remembered for his publishing of the Massachusetts Spy, a newspaper that supported the American revolutionary cause. He was a tireless printer and publisher of many pamphlets, the first American dictionary, textbooks, and considered the primary printer of American Bibles.

Until the American revolution, England forbid United States to print Bibles. King George mandated that all Bibles be imported from England. Although Robert Aitken printed the first Bible, Isaiah Thomas made the printing of the Bible accessible to all. His 1791 folio was an attempt to print the most accurate and aesthetically pleasing Bible of the time. He reviewed numerous copies from various publishers throughout England and consulted local religious leaders. To enhance the appearance, he included vast numbers of biblical engravings etched by American artisans (by the way, an edition a collector must have).

In 1806, one year following America’s victory over Tripoli, Thomas published the first American translation of the Quran in 1806. He printed an English translation of the French translation from the original Arabic.

Thomas made it clear in his introduction his contempt for the teaching of the Quran: “It [Quran] hath been expounded by many Mahometan doctors, their exposition being as ridiculous as the text.” His warning of the dangers of the spread of Islam was clear: “Thou wilt wonder that such absurdities have infected the best part of the world, and will avouch, that the knowledge of what is contained in this book [Quran], will render that law [sharia law] contemptible.”[x]

There was never any thought of translating the Quran for its spiritual or cultural enrichment. It was clear from the beginning his “disdain” for the teachings in the Quran and the danger of Islam. “This book is a long conference of God, the angles, and Mahomet, which that false prophet very grossly, invented….”[xi]

The Barbary wars’ victory released thousands of slaves. It appeared that Islam had been defeated—but not so. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Europe reclaimed Islamic territories. However, as historian, Raymond Ibrahim, reminds us that some “spirited” spiritual resistance remained in Africa’s bloody jihads. Ibrahim notes that as late as 1921, Islam had butchered thousands of Spanish soldiers at the battle of Annual in Morocco.[xii]

Many Westerners ignore the present danger of another resurgence of Islamic jihad. The Middle East conflict is not over territory but rather the conquest of Islam over Israel now and all Christians worldwide later. The goal of Islam for Israel is eradication and for Christianity subjugation and enforcement of Sheria Law. If history forecasts the future, Israel will not permit a two-nation state and Christianity will not abandon the Bible for submission to Sheria Law. The stalemate will continue until the world is united by a worldwide leader and peace agreement—the coming of the Lord—whichever comes first.

America has chosen the cross of the Bible over the scimitar of the Quran. Be diligent and don’t let history repeat itself. The Bible is the Christians’ sword to repel the Quran’s Islamic scimitar.

[1] Scimitar is the curved sword associated with Islam and represents their bloody conquest to forcefully convert the world to Islam.

[2] From the “river” commonly refers to the Jordan River and the Sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea while the Egypt River is most likely the Wadi El Arish which is the border between Gaza and Egypt and the Great River is Euphrates. This land includes the Levant: Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and part of Iraq, never controlled by Israel, expect perhaps, under King David in the 10/11^th century BC.

[3] Arabic acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-islamiya, in English, Islamic Resistance Movement.

[4] Referring to his encounter with Gabriel, Thomas in his introduction, writes, “The angel Gabriel brought this copy to Mahomet, who could neither write nor read.”  “To the Reader,” Koran, Alcoran of Mahomet, translated by Sieur De Ryer [1647 and then into English by Alexander Ross in 1649]. (Springfield, Isaiah Thomas, 1806), iv.

[5] Koran, 9:154.

[6] Koran 37:369. The literal meaning of houri is “pure” It may not be intended to mean women who have not had sex but are righteous, purified mates. Westerners would associate it with virgins; but where would so many “virgins” come from? Eye beauty may refer to the inner self. Arabic is a very difficult language to translate into a western language and Ryer’s translation was inferior to later translations such as George Sale’s eighteenth-century work.

[7] Koran, 9:160.

[8] Detailed discussion on the battles between Islam and its enemies can be found in Raymond Ibrahim, Sword and Scimitar, (New York, Hachette Books, 2018, 2020). The story is also told in the popular edition of Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger, Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates, New York, Sentinel, 2023).

[ix] The Barbary wars were from 1801-1805 and from 1815-1816 between America and the North African collation.

[x] Koran, Thomas, “To the Reader,” iii-iv.

[xi] Koran, Thomas, “to the Reader,” iii.

[xii] Raymond Ibrahim, Sword and Scimitar, 290.