The Maulana Azad Library is the central library of

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capital, New Delhi. ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is the largest university library in Asia. The seven-storey building is surrounded by of lawns and gardens. It has about 1,500,000 print collection out of which 138,178,2 are books. It celebrated its 73rd anniversary on 7 December 2023. The library received a donation of around 5000 books which were the personal collection of the poet

Kaifi Azmi Kaifi Azmi (born Athar Husain Rizvi; 14 January 1919 – 10 May 2002) was an Indian Urdu poet. He is remembered as the one who brought Urdu literature to Indian motion pictures. Together with Pirzada Qasim, Jaun Elia and others he participa ...

. Prof Nishat Fatima serves as the current university librarian of the library.

History

The foundation of the library was laid in 1877 at the time of establishment of the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College by Lord

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, (8 November 1831 – 24 November 1891), was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. During his tenure as Viceroy of India between 1876 ...

, the then Viceroy of India and it was named after him as Lytton Library. The present seven-story building was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India in 1960 and the library was named as Maulana Azad Library, dedicated after a great scholar, educationist, statesman, freedom fighter and the first Education Minister of India,

Maulana Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin (11 November 188822 February 1958), better known as Maulana Azad and sometimes referred as Abul Kalam Azad, was an Indian politician, writer and activist of the Indian independence movement. A senior leader of t ...

Holdings

The library's collection includes about 1,800,000 documents including books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, paintings and photographs. It aims at supporting students from all departments of the University. The library has a sizeable collection of early printed books in many languages including Latin translation of the Arabic work ''

Book of Optics The ''Book of Optics'' (; or ''Perspectiva''; ) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Arab scholar Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen or Alhacen (965–c. 1040 AD). The ''Book ...

'' by

Ibn al-Haytham Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinization of names, Latinized as Alhazen; ; full name ; ) was a medieval Mathematics in medieval Islam, mathematician, Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world, astronomer, and Physics in the medieval Islamic world, p ...

(965–1039) published in 1572. The Library holds an invaluable collection of 15,162 rare manuscripts, one of which written on parchment in Koofi script is claimed to be inscribed by

Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib an ...

(the fourth Caliph of Islam) 1400 years ago. Other items in the collection include several farmans (decrees) issued by

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

rulers (including

Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...

, Akbar, Shahjahan, Shah Alam, Shah Alamgir, and Aurangzeb); a "

shirt A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. ...

" on which the whole Qur'an is inscribed in khafi script; the Ayurved written in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

; and works by Bhasa written in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

on palm leaves. The Oriental Division of Maulana Azad Library consists of about 200,000 printed books and periodicals. Donations received have been designated as special collections by the names of their donors. The Urdu collection with more than 100,000 books forms the largest part of the Oriental Division. A substantial number of rare and out-of-print publications of the 19th century belong to the Scientific Society of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Fort William College (Kolkata), Delhi College, Agra College and from the Royal Printing Presses of the courts of Delhi and Oudh. Among the large collection of Mughal paintings is the painting of ''Red Blossom'' by Mansoor Naqqash, court artist of the

Emperor Jahangir Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal Emperor. Born as Prince Salim, he was the third and o ...

. Some valuable Sanskrit works translated into Persian have also been preserved in the library. Abul al-Faiz (Faizi), an eminent scholar of

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

's court translated several Sanskrit works into Persian, such as '' Mahapurana'', ''

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

'', ''

Mahabharat The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succes ...

'' and '' Lilavati''.

Building and services

The building has seven stories. It is surrounded by 4.75 acres of lawns and gardens. Over 8,000 students, teachers and other members of the university daily visit the library and use its services. There are six large size reading halls apart from eight small reading rooms with a seating capacity of about 2000 students at a time. The reading rooms open 18 hours a day. The library provides the campus with access to online journals through a Computer Lab. Digital resources on many subjects are made accessible through a Digital Resource Centre. All the issuable books are bar-coded for automated check in and check out. The university has established book banks for the benefit of students of certain professional courses. Forty-three thousand e-journals have been added to the e-resources of the Library which are accessible on campus-wide Network of the University.

References

External links

* {{authority control Aligarh Muslim University Academic libraries in India 1875 establishments in India Memorials to Abul Kalam Azad Libraries in Uttar Pradesh Libraries established in 1875