23 Mar 2008, 2038 hrs IST,PTI
AURANGABAD:
An ancient library dating back to 300 years was reopened after
a gap of 40 years at the historical monument Water Mill in Aurangabad,
sources said.
The
library housing manuscripts and other precious and rare books
like the Holy Quran written by the last Mughal emperor Aurangzeb
Alamgir, was thrown open recently to the public.
The
library, at the 18th century site, once the biggest in Asia, was
restarted with the efforts of top officials Maharashtra Wakf Board.
According
to the sources, Hazrat Babashah Musafir who migrated to Aurangabad
in 18th century from Bukhara in Russia founded the library as
well as the Water Mill.
The
library had around one lakh pieces till Independence. In 70s it
was shut down due to administrative reasons, following which many
of the library books were shifted to Hyderabad.
Currently,
the library houses 3,500 books on various fields including history,
law, medicine, Sufism, religion and philosophy in Arabic, penned
by philosophers, saints and scholars in Urdu and Persian languages.
The
cover of Holy Quran here has a coating of gold on both sides,
which has been preserved till date. A holy book written in 1283
in four languages is also available.
The
librarian Hafiz Abdul Jaleel said Babashah Musafir founded the
library with the main objective of spreading the knowledge.
"The
library was considered to be the largest one in Asia during that
time. Now, it has around 3,500 rare books. After reopening the
library, many students specially those who are engaged in research
are thronging it. There is no entry fee," he added.
