Hyderabad’s Rare Book Seller

William Dalrymple has been here and so have been numerous scholars, authors, librarians, and book collectors from around the world. Haziq-N-Mohi’s clients have included the libraries of Harvard, MIT, Oxford, and McGill. For all its international connections the rare book seller’s location belies its importance. Tucked away in the labyrinthine lanes of Hyderabad’s old city, across the street from the historic Chowk Masjid, the rare book seller has played an important part in salvaging and saving books from the private libraries of Hyderabad’s erstwhile aristocracy.

Described by a writer in Anthropology Today as “one of the few antiquarian book shops in India” the book store itself is the size of a large closet. But it is the treasures within, stacked from floor to ceiling, which are any scholar’s delight. Don’t mind your head and you will be hit by a 100 year old copy of Hairatul Fiqah (a book describing the wisdom behind Islamic juridical rulings) or Gulzar-e-Awliya (on the lives of saints) or oversized bound volumes of Hyderabad’s state census from 1800s. One can easily get lost in the five foot long cavern while poring over numerous Arabic and Persian manuscripts, long forgotten printed Urdu books from an era when it used to be lingua franca in the nation, or just glancing over a book containing prints of London by Ackerman.

Ahmed bin Mohammed Bafanna, the owner of Haziq & Mohi knows the relevance of the books and can produce volume upon volume on any subject. If perchance he doesn’t have the books he will be on the prowl all over the city to procure them for you. All this at a cost of course. A bound photocopied version of Tragedy of Hyderabad written by Hyderabad’s last Prime Minister Mir Laiq Ali will set you back by Rs.3500. After much haggling I had to shell out another three thousand rupees for a collection of tracts written by enthusiastic members of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen from the pre-partition era with quaint titles like “Muzammrat-e-Jung,” “Siyasat-e-Hyderabad,” and “Urooj-e-Millat.”

William Dalrymple spent four hundred pounds while collecting material for his best selling White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India. He had chanced about the shop by accident while looking to buy a souvenir Bidri box for his family. As he was frantically searching for someone to point him to a shop which would sell the Hyderabad s specialty, he was guided to Haziq N Mohi by boy who convinced him that he would find ‘booxies booxies.’ Dalrymple went on to buy a trunk load of books from the shop.

Despite his best efforts Mr.Bafanna hasn’t been able to convince families disposing libraries after the death of a patriarch to not to divide multi-volume books. This has resulted in several incomplete sets of books in his shop.

Despite his atrocious prices the adorable Mr. Bafanna renders valuable service in preserving a legacy which finds itself in a precarious situation. But for him many of the books would have been lost forever. It is a tragedy though that while the books are much sought after foreigners, the Hyderabadi natives are indifferent to their own heritage.