At the stroke of midnight on January 1, Zohran Mamdani made a series of historic firsts as mayor of New York City by becoming the first Muslim, first South Asian and first African-born person to hold that position.
Underscoring these milestones was another historic choice – a centuries-old Quran picked by his wife, Rama Duwaji, from the New York Public Library.
Mamdani took his oath at a decommissioned subway station beneath New York City Hall by placing his hand on two Qurans – a pocket-sized manuscript dating to the late 18th or early 19th century and one belonging to his grandfather. A third Quran belonging to his grandmother was used at his inauguration later in the day, when Mamdani took another oath alongside his wife.
The manuscript was on loan from New York Public Library's Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, named after Arturo Schomburg, a black Puerto Rican historian whose collection d
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