Three American women, all converts to Islam, began editing Islamic manuscripts for an Islamic publishing house (Dar Abul-Qasim) in 1985 under the penname Saheeh International. Shortly thereafter, they began to compile and write books of their own. In 1994, the publisher requested that they revise an existing translation of the Qur'an. However, they soon realized that it was harder to fix someone else's work than to start fresh. Thus began the task of reviewing numerous Arabic texts to ensure that the translation was as accurate as possible. The first edition was published in 1997 and quickly became recognized as one of the best Qur'an translations available.