A Moment in the American Desert

Dar al-Islam is the realized vision of an American-born Muslim, an AmericaneducatedSaudi businessman, the award-winning architect Hassan Fathy(1900-89). The purpose-built educational center and mosque was built in theearly 1980s, sits in New Mexico’s mesa landscape, and today functions as aneducational retreat.During the late 1970s Abdullah Nurdin Durkee and his wife Nura envisionedthe construction of an Islamic village in the United States. During atrip to Makkah they met Sahl Kabbani, a Saudi businessman educated in theUnited States who felt a connection and desired to contribute in some manner.Together they decided to create an Islamic village that would also function asan educational center and retreat. Later on Nura Durkee, while also prayingin Makkah, met Mothie and Johara, daughters of the Saudi king at the time,both of whom offered a financial gift to start the project. The group searchedfor a suitable site and eventually settled on Abiquiu, NM, due to the abundanceof available land for a relatively low cost, the remote location, and the landscape’ssimilar qualities with those in the Middle East.In Abiquiu, 3,450 hectares were purchased in the rugged backcountry,populated with flat-topped mesas and a verdant valley near the Chama river.Abdullah Naseef, then rector of the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, ...