The Bahawalpur Central Library (), also known as Sadiq Reading Library, is a library in

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. It was founded on 8 March 1924 by Sir Rufus Daniel Issacs during the coronation year of

Sadeq Mohammad Khan V General Nawab Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan V Abbasi ( ur, ) (born 29 September 1904, in Derawar – died 24 May 1966, in London) was the Nawab, and later Amir, of Bahawalpur State from 1907 to 1966. He became the Nawab on the death of his fat ...

. It cost 100,000 rupees by

Bahawalpur State Bahawalpur (Urdu, skr, ) was a princely state of British India, and later Dominion of Pakistan, that was a part of the Punjab States Agency. It existed as an autonomous state, within Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, when it was dissolved and merg ...

and is the second largest library in the province of Punjab.

Architecture

The library is one of the buildings built by the Nawabs that was designed in a hybrid Neo-Gothic-Victorian style. Unlike other royal buildings, arches in the library are not multi-foiled, but are instead single-foiled. A porch wraps around some of the building, and has an octagonal tower with

Jali A ''jali'' or jaali (''jālī'', meaning "net") is the term for a perforated stone or latticework, latticed Window screen, screen, usually with an ornamental pattern constructed through the use of calligraphy, geometry or natural patterns. T ...

work on its arches, and stylized Victorian scrolls at its base.

Collections

The library is divided into three sections: Main Hall, children's books section and audio visual archive section. The library's collection includes older editions of newspapers. It has over 100,000 books, and contains a repository of historic documents related to the state of Bahawalpur and

Khwaja Ghulam Farid Khwaja Ghulam Farid (Urdu: ) or Khwaja Fareed (1845–1901) was a 19th-century Sufi poet from Punjab. He was a member of the Chishti Nizami Sufi order. He wrote poetry in several languages, and his literary heritage has been claimed by both the ...

References

External links

Lets go:Bahawalpur library BBC Urdu
Libraries in Punjab, Pakistan Buildings and structures in Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (princely state) 1924 establishments in British India Libraries established in 1924 Tourist attractions in Bahawalpur {{Pakistan-struct-stub