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 Bihar, districts of the state of Bihar in India. Bihar Sharif is the administrative headquarters of this district. The districts is home to the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara a UNESCO World He ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

state in

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 approximately 2 miles (1

Kos Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...

) 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 ed ...

Syed Sulaiman Nadvi Sulaiman Nadvi (22 November 1884 – 22 November 1953) was a British Indian, and then Pakistani, Islamic scholar, historian and a writer, who co-authored '' Sirat-un-Nabi'' and wrote ''Khutbat-e-Madras''. He was a member of the founding commi ...

, Syed Mohammed Saeed Raza, Brigedier Malik Muhammad Mukhtar Karim,

Abdul Qavi Desnavi Abdul Qavi Desnavi (1 November 1930 – 7 July 2011) was an Indian People, 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 ...

. 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 (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

manuscripts. After the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, during uncertain times of mass emigration to

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, 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 Razavi (Arabic/Urdu: رضوي) is the Urdu variant of the Arabic surname ''Ridawi'' and the Persian surname ''Razavi''. It is a Muslim surname commonly associated with the branch of Husaynids, who claim descent from the Imam Ali al-Rida, ...

, Syeds, Zaidi and Mallicks were the prominent families living together.

References

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