The Rampur Raza Library (''Rāmpur Razā Kitāb Khāna'') located in Rampur,

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

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is a repository of Indo-Islamic cultural heritage established in the last decades of the 18th century. It was built up by successive Nawabs of Rampur and is now managed by the

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, named after Raza Ali Khan Bahadur. It contains a collection of manuscripts, historical documents, specimens of

Islamic calligraphy Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship and calligraphy, in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the Arabic script#Additional letters used in other languages, alphabets derived from it. It is a highly stylized and struc ...

, miniature paintings, astronomical instruments and illustrated works in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

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 ...

. The Raza Library also contains printed works in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

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Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

(having the original manuscript of the first translation of the Qur'an in addition to other important books/documents),

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and Turkish, and approximately 30,000 printed books (including periodicals) in various other languages.

History

Nawab Faizullah Khan, who ruled Rampur from 1774 to 1794, established the library from his personal collection of ancient manuscripts and miniature specimens of Islamic calligraphy in 1774. Succeeding Nawabs were patrons of scholars, poets, painters, calligraphers and musicians, so the library grew rapidly. Nawab Muhammad Said Khan (1840–1855) preceded his son, Nawab Yousuf Ali Khan Nazim, who was crowned on 1 April 1855. After the

Sepoy Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

of 1857, many Mughal book collections were destroyed, taken to

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or dispersed. On the Indian subcontinent, these collections were succeeded by those belonging to the Nawabs and Nizams of Rampur, Avadh, Arcot,

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and Tonk. Nawab Kalb Ali Khan (1865–1887) was interested in the collection of rare manuscripts, paintings and specimens of Islamic calligraphy. He was a scholar and poet. Nawab Mushtaq Ali Khan (1887–1889) preceded Nawab Hamid Ali Khan (1889–1930). Hamid Ali Khan was known for renovating the city's mosque, castle ramparts, and state buildings in Rampur. He also contracted his Chief Engineer W.C. Wright to create a palace named Hamid Manzil in the early 20th century, where he held court. The Raza Library was shifted to this building in 1957. Raza Ali Khan of Rampur ascended the throne on 21 June 1930. He was educated in India and abroad. He was a progressive from an early age and bolstered education in schools and colleges. He also invited educators to organize these academic institutions. Besides he was a great lover of Indian music for which he purchased several rare manuscripts and books on the subject.

Current status

After

Rampur State Rampur State was a 15 gun-salute princely state of British India. It came into existence on 7 October 1774 as a result of a treaty with Oudh. Following independence in 1947, Rampur State and other princely states of the area, such as ...

joined the Union of India, in 1949 the Library was controlled by the management of a Trust which was created on 6 August 1951 by Raza Ali Khan Bahadur. The Trust management continued until July 1975, when the

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passed the Raza Library Act. When the library was taken over by the Central Government, Nawab Syed Murtaza Ali Khan was nominated the vice-chairman of the newly created Board for life under sub-section 5 (1) of the Act. With his death on 8 February 1982, the post of vice-chairman was automatically abolished. Now the Library occupies the position of an autonomous institution of national importance under Department of Culture, Government of India and is fully funded by Central Government. The Library is designated as a 'library of national importance' by the Ministry of Education. The library is also a designated 'Manuscript Conservation Centre' (MCC) under the

National Mission for Manuscripts National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

established in 2003.Manuscript Conservation Centres
''

''.

References

External links

Raza Library, Official website
{{Authority control Libraries in Uttar Pradesh Architecture in India Rampur, Uttar Pradesh 18th-century establishments in India Archives in India Islam in India Government buildings in Uttar Pradesh Libraries established in the 1790s