Introduction
When scholars
of Islamic studies think of manuscripts in Arabic and related languages, they
almost invariably turn to the great library holdings in the Middle East and Europe,
forgetting that there are huge collections elsewhere, for example in India. It
is estimated that in 2004, India
possesses nearly one hundred thousand manuscripts in Arabic script spread over
a number of libraries in various parts of the country. This number is in addition to what may be
available in undocumented private collections. The Indian collections are
renowned for the importance of many individual items, from some of the finest
calligraphic and illustrated manuscripts of the Qur’an
to autograph and other high-quality copies of major legal, literary,
scientific, and historical works. Manuscripts produced in India
but taken away illegally to Europe is another category
altogether. Should various cultural
properties of Indian Islamic origin found in foreign countries be ever returned
to their place of
origin, many European museums and libraries would be emptied. For
instance, most of the Arabic and Persian, and Urdu collections in the British
Library are of Indian origin.
Similar is the case with Persian manuscripts in France’s
Bibliotheque Nationale.
Poet philosopher Allama Iqbal
lamented the theft of Indian books in European libraries in a memorable
couplet:
In
post-colonial time, some collections moved to England
when oweners donated to institutions, such as the
case with 226 codices of Zahid Ali Collection. In
this case, the American immigrant family of late Dr. Zahid
Ali of Osmania
University donated the manuscripts
to the Ismaili Institute in London.
Compared with India,
neighboring Pakistan
did not inherit much, as there apparently are only two organizations involved
in publishing manuscripts of historical value.
They are the Hamdard Foundation and the Institute
of Central and West Asian Studies, University
of Karachi, according to Mubarak Ali, “A Wealth of Historical Resources,” Dawn (22 August 2004) internet edition. He
has obviously overlooked the Iran-Paksitan Research
Institute based in Islamabad.
An overview of loss of cultural
properties, including precious manuscripts is given by Seema
Alavi in her article “Lost Treasures,” published in
the The Hindu (27 August 2000) Internet edition. For instance Badshah Namah, the most famous of
the Mughal illustrated manuscript is a stolen
property held in the British Queen’s Library with no Indians permitted to use
it. According to Caroline Stone, “Some opportunities
occur not once in a lifetime, nor once in a century, but just once, period.
Unless you belong to England's royal family, it is only now that you can see
more than two pages at a time of the Padshahnamah,
one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts from Mughal
India,” cited from her essay “The Most Splendid Manuscript,” published in Aramco World Magazine (November-December
1997), also available on the internet
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199706/.the.most.splendid.manuscript..htm
The manuscripts discussed in this
essay do not include state papers available in Persian and Urdu in various
archives in the country. According to Murli Manohar Joshi, then India’s
Minister for Human Resource Development “an estimated 30 million manuscripts
are scattered all over” the nation. A majority of manuscripts are in Persian,
followed by Arabic and Urdu. A smaller
number of the manuscripts are in Pushto, Sindhi and
Turkish. Libraries containing manuscripts I these languages are listed in the
Appendixes.