Brief Guide to the Text

This translation of the Koran was first published in 1930 by
a British man. He demonstrated his conversion to Islam by
changing his name to “Muhammed Pickthall”. Publications
of his translation normally conceal his conversion by giving
his name as “Marmaduke”. That the translator was a covert
Muslim is reason to assume that the translation errs on the
side of deceiving the reader when possible (most readers
would have been non-Muslims). Unlike the illogical chapter
ordering in his original translation, we have put the chapters
in reverse chronological order, which means the first verses
you see on turning the page are the last verses Mohammed

“received” from Allah.^379 On that first page you will see
Chapter 9 Verse 5, which is known as “The Verse of the
Sword”, and this verse is of huge importance, because it
cancels more verses than any other.
Another change we have made to Pickhtallʼs translation
is that the most important verses of the Koran for non-
Muslims have been printed in a larger, bolder font making
it easier for you to see them (for example, Islam’s
commands of violence in the pursuit of the subjugation of
non-Muslims). The Koran has been split into two parts: the
later part (which is the violent part of Islam), and the earlier
part (the non-violent part). With the non-violent part of
Islam, Mohammed attracted no more than 150 followers in
thirteen years; when Mohammed turned Islam into a violent,
predatory, politicized religion he acquired over 10,000