ABSTRACT
Arabic is one of the great classical languages of the world. It was the medium of teaching, writing and learning throughout the reigns of the Abbasids and the Umayyads of Spain. The Delhi sultans, the Mughal rulers, the Bahmani, the Qutb Shahi and the Asaf Jahi rulers all established libraries. To promote learning and scholarship the State Central Library was founded in ad 1885 and opened to the public in ad 1891 by the sixth Nizam. A large number of scholars from within the country and outside sought for the publications of the Da'irat-ul-Ma'arif which were in great demand. Scholars from Iraq, Syria, Jeddah, Makkah, London, Italy, Belgium and USA wrote letters seeking the publications of the Da'irat which were sometimes sent free of cost and sometimes at concessional rates. The Da'irat-ul-Ma'arif evolved into a unique research organization that has helped preserve some of the rarest works of Oriental thought, the loss of which would have rendered the world poorer.
