Four months later, in October 1806, the first American edition of the Koran was printed in the United States. As the editor’s note makes clear, its publication was not for the “cultural enrichment” of Americans—as is often claimed today—but to inform them why they had been at war for the last four years. After opening up by saying, “This book is a long conference of God, the angels, and Mahomet, which that false prophet very grossly invented,” the editor concluded: “Thou wilt wonder that such absurdities hath infected the better part of the world, and wilt avouch, that the knowledge of what is
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