I'm not actually sure that I would say the Quran is a religious text that would contribute to your understanding of world history. It's a bit of a running joke from scholars who write introductions to the Quran for English speaking audiences to mention that the Quran is pretty impenetrable to western audiences used to reading the bible.

For one thing it's not narrative the way most of the bible is, and for another although it is decidedly not poetry the Quran often has deeply poetic qualities of rhyme, rhythm, meter, etc. I would also recommend looking at just how huge the differences between translations are (of course this problem plagues the bible as well, but given those poetical features the problem is magnified with the Quran, in my opinion.) I still like the Marmeduke Pickthall translation for most purposes, but the "Sahih International Version" and Yusuf Ali translations are probably the most common in circulation. I think those are the two that will get distributed by mosques, for example.

You would probably be better off with the literary biography of the prophet, the Sira which is not a religious text per-se but is basically the canonical and earliest traditional biography of the prophet. It's usually right beside hadith for religious understanding of the prophet's life.

A good translation of it exists in English under the title "The Life of Muhammad" translated by Alfred Guillaume. Annoyingly though he separates the notes of Ibn Hisham into an Appendix, whereas in the Arabic editions they're usually side by side.

Of course it's worth bearing in mind that there are huge historiographical problems with the actual accuracy of the Sira. That said as a "religious text" it's pretty important, as it's the standard historical work about muhammad in Islamic circles.