Desna is a very old village located on the banks of the River Jerain in

Nalanda district Nalanda district is one of the thirty-eight districts of the state of Bihar in India. Bihar Sharif is the administrative headquarters of this district. The districts contain the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara a UNESCO World Heritage site. Nalanda is ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

state in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is approximately 2 miles (1

Kos Kos or Cos (; el, Κως ) is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 36,986 (2021 census), ...

) from Asthawan and 10 miles from

Bihar Sharif Bihar Sharif is the headquarters of Nalanda district and the fifth-largest sub-metropolitan area in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Its name is a combination of two words: ''Bihar'', derived from '' vihara'' (meaning monastery), also the nam ...

History

Desna was a Saadat village. Desna produced luminaries like Hakim Syed Jannat Hussian Sarbahadi, Syed Tajammul Hussian Desnavi founding member of

Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama (translated as, House of Knowledge and Assembly of Scholars University) is an Islamic seminary in Lucknow, India. It was established by the Nadwatul Ulama, a council of Muslim scholars, on 26 September 1898. This educ ...

Syed Sulaiman Nadvi Syed Sulaiman Nadvi (—; 22 November 1884 – 22 November 1953) was a Pakistani historian, writer and scholar of Islam. He co-authored ''Sirat-un-Nabi'' and wrote ''Khutbat-e-Madras''.

Syed Mohammed Saeed Raza Syed Mohammed Saeed Raza (1890 – 1963) was a Muslim professor and scholar. Early life and family Raza was born in Desna, Bihar, a village . He belonged to a family of scholars and well-educated landowners. His father, Hakim Syed Liaqat Hussia ...

, Brigedier Malik Muhammad Mukhtar Karim,

Abdul Qavi Desnavi Abdul Qavi Desnavi (1 November 1930 – 7 July 2011) was an Indian Urdu language writer, critic, bibliographer and linguist. He wrote many books on Urdu literature. His works included about Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mirza Ghalib and Allama Muha ...

. Desna's library, established in 1892, had thousands of old

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, during uncertain times of mass emigration to

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 ...

, the books were donated to Khuda Bakhsh Khan Library in Patna, where a Desna section was established to house these treasures. Desna also had a wall with gates encircling the village, defending it from outsiders.

Rizvi Rizvi or Rizavi or رضوی is the Urdu form of the Arabic surname Radawi/Radhawi and the Persian surname Razavi. It is a surname commonly associated with Muslims, who claim descent from the Imam Ali al-Ridha, a descendant of the Islamic prophet M ...

, Zaidi and Mallicks were the prominent families living together.

References

Villages in Nalanda district {{coord, 25, 14, N, 85, 38, E, display=title, region:IN_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki