The Gorgeous American Qur'an
by evelyn
Artist Sandow Birk’s beautiful new book American Qur'an is truly a revelation. Birk worked on this project for almost ten years. His website states his motivation:
“At a time when the United States was involved in two wars against Islamic nations and declared itself to be in a cultural and philosophical struggle against Islamic extremists, American artist Sandow Birk’s latest project considers the Qur’an as it was intended – as a universal message to humankind.”
This project took him all over the world and introduced him to the many complexities of Islam. He ultimately hand transcribed the Qur’an using traditional methods and then placed the text over top illustrations of everyday American life. American Qur'an should not be misconstrued as an illustrated Qur’an, but rather a Qur’an whose sacred text enriches the images it shares the pages with.
If you are interested in reading the Qur’an in full for the first time, I would not start with this hefty book; AADL does have more standard translations of the Qur’an and it’s easily found online. However, if you want to see a beautiful interpretation of the Qur’an that is uniquely American, you should check this book out!
Blog Post