New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city's first Muslim and South Asian leader as well as its youngest in over a century, announced on Tuesday that the historic 18th-century Quran—one of two he used during his private midnight swearing-in ceremony on January 1—will remain on public exhibit at the main branch of the New York Public Library, marking a symbolic gesture of shared heritage and inclusion.

The unadorned manuscript, a pocket-sized copy dating to the late 18th or early 19th century and originally acquired by renowned Afro-Puerto Rican scholar and Harlem Renaissance figure Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, was handwritten in Ottoman Syria using simple black ink with red accents to denote textual divisions, deliberately designed without elaborate ornamentation to serve as a practical tool for everyday readers rather than an elite artifact.

In a post on X, Mamdani reflected on the privilege of placing his hand on Schomburg's Quran during the intimate ceremony held in the decommissioned Old City Hall subway station, emphasizing its transition from personal ownership to public domain as emblematic of New York City's diverse and evolving identity, stating that it "now belongs to all New Yorkers" in this new chapter of civic history.

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The exhibit, which opened on January 6 in the grand McGraw Rotunda of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street, features accompanying photographs from the private oath—including images of Mamdani alongside his wife Rama Duwaji, detailed close-ups of the open Quran beneath his hand, and a portrait of Schomburg—flanked by prominent banners reading "The People's Qur'an" and "Making History at City Hall" to underscore its democratic accessibility.

New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx praised the artifact's display as representative of broader narratives of inclusion, representation, and civic engagement, while Middle Eastern and Islamic studies curator Hiba Abid highlighted its profound significance beyond mere craftsmanship, noting its role within the nation's largest public library system as a text intimately connected to the people and reflective of historical ties between Islam and Black intellectual traditions.

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