Historic Quran witnesses historic oath-taking of Mamdani as the New York City mayor
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Honouring his Islamic faith and at the same time standing by his roots, Zohran Mamdani kept in his hand two copies of the Quran, one used by his grandfather and the other a historic 200-year-old copy borrowed from the New York Public Library, during a private swearing-in event held at a disused subway station beneath Times Square, thereby placing himself in history as the first New York City mayor to be sworn in using a Quran.
The midnight ceremony marked a series of firsts, as Mamdani became not only the city’s first Muslim mayor but also the first South Asian to assume leadership of the United States’ largest metropolis, with the setting itself underscoring a deliberate blend of symbolism, heritage and civic modernity.
The oath was taken with his hand resting on two Qurans, one drawn from his own family lineage and the other once owned by Arturo Schomburg, whose personal library later formed the backbone of one of the most significant research centres devoted to Black history and culture in the United States, according to Al Jazeera.
Arturo Schomburg, born in Puerto Rico in the 1870s to parents of German and Afro-Caribbean descent, migrated to New York and emerged as a pivotal intellectual figure during the Harlem Renaissance, contributing decisively to the preservation and celebration of African and African diasporic histories.
His vast collection of books, manuscripts and artefacts, sold to the NYPL in 1926, became the foundation of the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, an institution that continues to shape scholarly engagement with Black cultural life.
The Quran associated with Schomburg, now part of the NYPL’s holdings, is notable for its modest size and practical design, characteristics that suggest everyday devotional use rather than ceremonial display, while its minute naskh script and ornate gilt-stamped binding point to its likely production in Ottoman Syria during the nineteenth century.
By selecting this particular text, Mamdani aligned his personal faith with a broader historical narrative that connects immigrant experiences, intellectual labour and the evolving civic identity of New York.
Mamdani’s observances are set to continue with a daytime ceremony at City Hall, during which he plans to use two additional Qurans that belonged to his grandfather and grandmother, thereby extending the intergenerational symbolism into the formal public proceedings.
Although New York City imposes no requirement that mayors swear their oaths on religious texts, precedent has long favoured such gestures, with former mayor Michael Bloomberg using a century-old family Bible, Bill de Blasio opting for a Bible once owned by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Eric Adams similarly drawing upon a family heirloom.