DESCRIPTIVE NOTES ON LIBRARIES. Ixxxvil 



founded in a.h. 1189 

 chronogram : 



Madrasah-i-Jalallyah 

 rs from the followin 





jj.y ^ csy— Aa. jiJU £j ; l3 ^-l-fyL 



**,** df>L*c ^j| ig&jj aiii? ^i^i, 



(IIM) 



The Madrasah-i- Jalallyah , which is known to all, enjoyed a 

 wide celebrity under the principalship of the eminent scholar 

 and most prolific Indian writer Mawlavl 1 'Abd al-'All Md. B. 

 Nizam al-Dln of Lucknow, popularly known as the Bahr al- 

 'Ulum (d. a.h. 1225 = a.d. 1810). 



The Madrasah was named after Sayyid* Jalal al-Dln Tabriz! 

 (d, a.h. 642 = a. d. 1244) who came to Bengal and was granted 

 the tenure of the Ba'is Hazari Parganas. The first Sadr al-Din 

 became the Waqif of the trust estate and he founded the 

 Madrasah and the library by its income. The name of the 

 Madrasah-i- Jalaliyah is written on the fly-leaves of many MSS., 

 from which it may be inferred that the library was attached to 

 the Madrasah. 3 Most of the contents of the library were lost 

 after the death of the first Sadr al-Dln, the founder, and during 

 the minority of his only son Kafil al- Din (d. a.h. 1243 = a.d. 

 1827) whose estate was taken charge of by the Court of Wards. 

 On his attaining majority the estate reverted to him. It cannot 

 be ascertained how many MSS. he obtained when the estate 

 devolved upon him. Kafil al-Din was succeeded by his son 

 SayyidKarlm al-Din Ahmad (d.B.S. 1262 = a. d. 1856 = a.h. 1273). 



It is not known how the founder of the library, the first Sadr 

 al-Din, collected the MSS. and what was their number, but 

 when the second Sayyid Sadr al-Dln Ahmad succeeded his 

 father Karim al-Din he found only one hundred volumes of 

 MSS. He added much to the library by purchase and by copy- 

 ing from other MSS. found in different libraries in India. He 

 was himself a patron of learning and author of many books 

 and had a special taste for the Persian language. 



In the year 1904, during the viceroyalty of Lord Curzon, 

 the library was presented by the owner, the second Sadr al-Dln 



- | ■ 



1 For his life see Ahwal-i-TJ lamcC -i- F irangi Mahal, p. 64, Hada'iq al- 

 Hanafiyah. p. 467, O.P. Lib. Bankipore Cat., Vol I, p. 117, where the 

 date of Bahr al-'Ulum's death is given a.h. 1235, and al-Nadwah, 1910, 



No. 12, pp. 14-18. M m 



2 For his life see Rawa'ih al-Mustafa, p. 298, compiled by M. Sayyid 

 ?adr al-Dln Ahmad al-Musavi and Khazinat al-Asfiya of Ghulam Sarwar, 

 p. 262. 



8 For Madrasah see al-Nadwah, 1910, No. 12, p. 10, and Tazkirah 



'Ulama'i Hind, p. 123. 



