What do you know about the Taj Mahal of Books?

What do you know about the Taj Mahal of Books?

The Raza Library is also called the “Taj Mahal of Books”.

What do you know about the Taj Mahal of Books?

This library is located in the city of Rampur (Uttar Pradesh, India) - a kind of Indian Bukhara. This treasury houses thousands of valuable manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi and other languages.

It has a large collection of copies of the Quran, albums with miniatures and examples of Islamic calligraphy. It contains rare printed and periodicals, coins, archaeological artifacts, in particular, Kushan terracotta and other art objects. Undoubtedly, all this wealth is a precious gift to the world from the Nawwābs of Rampur.

It was established as part of the royal toshakhāna way back in the late 18th century C.E. by Nawwāb Faiḍ-Allah Khān (reign 1774 – 1794 C.E.) – the first Nawwāb of Rampur – simultaneously with the establishment of the Rampur Estate. In 1851 C.E. an independent department namely Kutub-khāna-i Dār al-Riyāsat-i Rāmpūr (The Library of the Estate Capital of Rampur) was established by Nawwāb Muḥammad Saʻīd Khān (reign 1840 – 1855 C.E.) and kept on developing in later Nawwābs.

You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Literary legacy of Uzbekistan in the Collection of the Rampur raza Library" (volume XXXIII) in the series "Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the Collections of the World".

The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.