Rare books in Jamia to be digitised

Thousands of rare books and manuscripts at the Jamia Milia Islamia University would soon be available in a digital format.

The varsity has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for digitisation of rare books and other cultural treasures in the institute’s Zakir Hussain Library.

The digital library will be made easily accessible to researchers across the country, a university statement said. The Library’s rare books section has about 1,600 volumes published in 16th and 19th century in many languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Pushtoo, Punjabi and Braj Bhasha.

HT Image

It also has files of Urdu and English newspapers in the late 19th and the early 20th Century, including al-Hilal, Awadh Punch, Madeena-Bijnore and Khilafat. The library also houses nearly 2,500 manuscripts on various subjects such as astronomy, astrology, music, Quranic studies, sufism, logic, philosophy, Unani medicine, oriental studies, mathematics and Hinduism.

The library also has in its possession valuable source material on the history of the freedom movement in the form of private papers of eminent Indian leaders.