Maulana Azad Library
Central library of Aligarh Muslim University
The Maulana Azad Library is the central library of Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. It is the largest university library in Asia. The seven-storey building is surrounded by 4.75 acres (1.92 ha) of lawns and gardens. It has about 1,500,000 print collection out of which 1,381,782 are books. It celebrated its 73rd anniversary on 7 December 2023.
The library received a donation of around 5000 books which were the personal collection of the poet Kaifi Azmi.
Prof Nishat Fatima serves as the current university librarian of the library.
History
The foundation of the library was laid in 1877 at the time of establishment of the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College by Lord Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, the then Viceroy of India and it was named after him as Lytton Library. The present seven-story building was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India in 1960 and the library was named as Maulana Azad Library, dedicated after a great scholar, educationist, statesman, freedom fighter and the first Education Minister of India, Maulana Azad.
Holdings
The library's collection includes about 1,800,000 documents including books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, paintings and photographs.
The public source identifies “Maulana Azad Library” as central library of Aligarh Muslim University. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maulana, Azad and Library.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3634529. VIAF identifies the subject as 147188987. The Library of Congress control number is n50083096. Authority coordinates are 27.880, 78.080. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023, 1877 and 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maulana Azad Library” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.