Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library
Website URL http://www.kblibrary.org/oriental.htm
Introduction:
Mawlawi Khuda Bakhsh, (1842-1908), a native of Bihar and chief justice of
the Hyderabad High Court established one of the largest collections of
manuscripts founded in 1891.
Introductory text is by B.M. Gupta, “Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library,” pp. 88-94, in Handbook
of Libraries, Archives and
Number of manuscripts: 21,000
Catalog(s): Mahbub al-bab fi tariff al-kutub wa al-kuttab, by Khuda Bakhsh, (Hyderabad, 1314 A.H./1896- or 1897; reprinted by the Library, 1991)
Catalogue of Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipore, 34 volumes, edited by Azim al-Din Ahmad et al, (Calcutta and Patna: The Library, 1980). For a comment on these catalogs see Edward Dennison Ross, “A Word on Professor Seidel’s Review of Bankipore Catalogue,” Zeitschrift der Deutsche Morgenlandaendenische Gesellschaft 66 (1912): 148-160, and 528.
Fihrist-i dasti-i kutub-i qalami-i Laibriri-yi mawqufah-yi Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh…musammah bi-Miftah al-kunuz al-khafiyah, 3 vols., edited by Abdulhamid and Edward Dennison Ross, & the III volume by Sayyid Athar Shir, (Patna: The Library, 1918-1965)
Vincent C. Scott O’Connor, An Eastern Library: With Two Catalogues of its Persian and Arabic Manuscripts, (Glasgow, 1920; revised edition published by the Khuda Bakhsh Library in 1977).
Fihrist-i nuskh-i khatti-yi Farsi-yi Oriental Public Library musammah bih Mirat al-ulum, (Patna: The Library, 1925)
Fihrist-i makhtuatt-i Urdu, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, edited by Abid Imam Zaydi, (Patna: The Library, 1962) and Khuda Bakhsh Library ke Urdu makhtut ki fihrist, (Patna: The Library, 1995)
Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, 2nd edition, vols. 1-36, (Patna: The Library, 1970)
Tibb-i Islami bar-i saghir men, (Patna: The Library, 1988). On Yunani medical manuscripts in the library.
Erkan Turkmen, “
Zalmay Hewadmal, “Nuskh-i zaban-i Pushto dar Kitab
Khanah-yi Khuda Bakhsh,
Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Khuda Bakhsh Library, Corrections and Additions, by Z.A. Desai, (Patna: The Library, 1995)
Descriptive Catalogue of Rare Arabic Manuscripts Preserved in Khuda Bakhsh Library, edited by M. Zakir Hussain, 3 vols., (Patna: The Library, 1997)
Works on the history or individual manuscripts in the library:
For the life
of Khuda Bakhsh, see the
biography by his son, and a famous scholar in his own right, Salahuddin Khuda Bakhsh and Jadunath Sarkar, Khuda Bakhsh, (Patna: The Library,
1981). Mawlawi Khuda
Bakhsh, (
The periodical Khuda Bakhsh Library Journal published by the Library since 1977 carries research based on the manuscripts in the library. The Library also conducts seminar on manuscripts, see for instance, Urdu makhtutat: Khuda Bakhsh Junubi Aishiyai Ilaqai Seminar 1987 ke maqalat, (Patna: The Library, 1999). Individual scholars who wrote about the manuscripts in the library include, Brahmadeva Prasad Ambashthiya, “An Urdu Manuscript in Khuda Bakhsh Library,” Indian History Congress Proceedings 21 (1958): 306-317; Rihana Khatun, “Nafayis al-Kalam wa Araiyish al-Aqlam: Raja Ali Khan Faruqi…Wali-yi Khandesh ke Ahad ke ek Farsi Tasnif,” Maarif (Azamgarh) March 1977: 204-221; Muhammad Atitqurrahman, “Khuda Bakhsh Library main Mawlana Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgrami ki Qalami Tasnifat,” Maarif (October 1980): 278-292; Paul Sprachman, “Photographing Islamic Manuscripts in India,” South Asia Library Notes and Queries 13 (June1982), p. 9; Hatim Salih al-Damin, “Makhtuta kitab al-halabah fi asmaa al-Khil al-mashhura fi al-jahiliyah wa al-islam,” Majallah al-majmaa al-ilmi al-iraqi 34 (1983): 201-203; Wasim Ahmad Azami,”Zubdat al-Tibb: Ek Aham Tibbi Makhtuta,” Maarif (Azamgarh) April 1984: 294-307; Isam Muhammad al-Shanti, al-Makhtutat al-Arabiyyah fi al-Hind, (Kuwait: Maahad al-Makhtutat al-Arabiyyah, 1985), pp. 39-42; Riza Ali Abidi, Kitab Khanah, (Karachi: Saad Publications, 1985), pp.55-62; Fuzayl Ahmad Qadiri, “al-Qael al-Jala wa Asrar al-Khafa ka Nuskhah-yi Khuda Bakhsh,” Maarif (Azamgarh) June 1987: 463-474; K.A. Shafique Azmi, Ghulam Mehdi, & K.J. Shamsi, “Some Salient Features of Kitabul Hashaish With Special Reference to Manuscript Preserved in Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library.” Bulletin of the Indian Institute of History of Medicine 23, ii (1993): 143-148; Muhammad Zakir Husayn Nadwi, “Khuda Bakhsh Library ka ek Makhtuta ‘Khulasa-yi Anis al-Talibin,” Maarif (Azamgarh) July 1998: 67-76. The following articles are most recently published in Pura-Prakasha…Dr Ziauddin Desai Commemoration Volume, 2 vol., edited by A.K. Sharma, (New Delhi: Bhartiya Kala Prakashan, 2003), pertaining to manuscripts in the Khuda Bakhsh Library, Mohd. Atiqur Rahman, “A Rare Bayad of Muhammad Husain Kashmiri,”pp. 342-345, and the same writer’s “Jahangir Namah—A Comparative Study,” pp. 356-358; Jamaluddin R. Sheikh, “Risala-i- Qadamiya in Prose of Shaikh Faidi,” pp. 346-355;
Present Conditions: As
an institution established by the central Indian government, an Annual Report
of the Library is presented to the national parliament every year, which would
be a useful source of information. Journalistic
accounts include, S.N. Sahi, “The Khuda
Bakhsh Oriental Public Library,” The Illustrated
Weekly of India 22 October 1967, pp. 26-27; Rashid Ali, “Maktabat Khuda Bakhsh al-sharaqiya al-aama,” Thaqafat al-Hind
41, 4 (1990): 143-150. The library
celebrated its centenary in 1991, see the report “Khuda
Bakhsh Library ka jashn-i
sad salah, “ Nida-yi Millat (
http://islamicvoice.com/april.2003/community.htm#kbl
Other Collections:
Kutub
Khanah-yi al-Islah