And the sellers of those uncommon treatises near Charminar are happy and content.
People from high-ranking officials from the city to renowned scholars from across the globe have been here for getting rare books at the old book shop near Charminar. Not just officials and scholars, even politicians visited here to purchase the book of their choices.
The shop called Haziq & Mohi, is owned by two brothers Ahmed Bin Mohammed Bafanna and Awed Bin Mohammed Bafanna.
The road from Charminar to Hussaini Alam has many book shops but this shop is quite inside, one has go from the main road to the left by-lane towards the Murgi
Chowk and near Gafooria Ice-cream parlor which is famous landmark in the area.
The shop is situated between the two lanes, and one can have a look from either side of the shop as it has openings each side. Thousands of the books from ancient times are available here. They are in many languages including Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Telugu.
The shop is now covered as new structures have come up and roads are in bad shape. The drainage system is not in place well in this area. When it rains heavily, water enters into the shop and damages many rare books which are kept on the lower side of the shelves.
The state government is not concerned about the prevention or screening of the rare books available here. The owners do not have any assistance for the maintenance of the shop and preservation of books. However, the owners have a large family to support and this only business hardly gets them enough food for the day.
The shop contributed books to the libraries of Harvard, MIT, Oxford, and McGill. The booksellers played an important part in reclaiming and saving books from the private libraries of Hyderabad’s erstwhile aristocracy.
This is one of the few antiquarian book shops in India. The book store itself is the size of a large closet. But it reserves within invaluable books, stacked from floor to ceiling, which are any scholar’s delight.
From a 100-year-old copy of Hairatul Fiqah (a book describing the wisdom behind
Islamic juridical rulings) to Gulzar-e-Awliya (on the lives of saints) and oversized bound volumes of Hyderabad state census from 1800s, anything is available in this shop.
The owners Haziq & Mohi know the relevance of the books and can produce volumes upon volumes on any subject. If perchance they don’t have the books, they will be on the prowl all over the city to procure them for you.
A bound photocopied version of Tragedy of Hyderabad written by Hyderabad’s last
Prime Minister Mir Laiq Ali is also made available for interested people.
Despite his best efforts, Bafannas have not been able to convince their families after the death of a patriarch not to divide multi-volume books. This has resulted in several incomplete sets of books in his shop.
This shop has many rare manuscripts of Indian History as well as Islamic History.
People come from all over the world to purchase books and manuscripts from this shop as these books are not available in any modern book stall.
The owners of this book shop are well-known personalities, being popular names in many major countries like U.S.A., Canada, Europe, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
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