I can’t find anything about annotations in the Koran. There is plenty of confusion about the whole topic. Someone named K. Collazi writes that it was Jefferson’s Koran that K. Ellison used for his swearing-in and it was translated by George Sale. According to Collazi, Mr. Sale himself had negative things to say about Islam. John Adams senior’s Koran was translated by Sieur du Ryer. Other folks have allegedly switched these books around in their commentary.

Hitchens Naval bibliography missed the first accounts of the U.S. Navy; the first being a highly biased and anti-US account by a British lawyer named James, and the second by a grad student named Theodore Roosevelt. TR’s motive, in part, was to set the record straight after the scurrilous book by James.

The one I read was by Ian Toll, “Six Frigates.” While I don’t doubt that many of our founding fathers were anti-war isolationists at various points in time, it was Adams senior (Pres. #2) who signed the funding for the first 6 frigates, early in his presidency. The design and construction was long and arduous and none were launched until Jefferson’s presidency. Jefferson had been a strong isolationist until he saw the realities of the presidency. Make sure to read the epilog, if you read Toll.

I researched this particular issue several years ago, and by looking at the budgetary figures in the Congressional Records for the years involved, from what I could see, Jizya payments–in the demanded gold coins–approached not 10%, but more like 50% of the Budget in some years.

I hadn’t realized you’d been living in Venezuela. You must have a great many tales to tell.

I’ve been reading Daniel’s work for well over a decade. I think the first mention I made of his blog at my blog is here.

It would be greatly appreciated, and not just by me, I suspect,.

Sorry Sarah, I get your point but I had to laugh at that in view of all the hype about how “attractive” AOC is supposed to be. I do not find her attractive for precisely those two reasons – eyes and teeth.

I am well informed on this subject because I lived in Venezuela for 12 years up till five months ago. I speak Spanish and follow the news closely in the original Spanish versions. Note that the media often screws up the stories with inaccurate translations. My wife is Venezuelan and we still have property there.

Note that I was even jailed during the 2017 protests. I wasn’t even in the protest. I just got swept up by the police several blocks away. I and 41 others spent five days and nights sleeping and eating on a tile floor in the same clothing in which we were arrested.

Anyway, I will be happy to provide information and clarifications on this subject as the confrontation unfolds.

In any case, Omar is toeing the socialist/leftist party line on this. There is a fairly sound legal argument, as well as a moral one, for supporting Guaidò. But, none of that matters, because… well, because Trump.

The consensus on Jefferson’s Koran is that there are no notes in it.

Jefferson was in favor of religious freedom, including Muslims. However, he also said that Islam is a religion “stifling free enquiry.” And of course there were the Barbary pirates (see this).

It was John Quincy Adams who wrote quite a bit on Islam.