State Central Library

The state central library is one of the biggest library out of 10 biggest libraries in India.

The State Central Library is one of the institution of learning which had its genesis in the year 1891 due to the sustained efforts of Late Moulvi Syed Hussain Bilgrami (Nawab Imadul Mulk Bahadur of H.E.H), the Nizam’s Government. The personal library of this great scholar formed the initial corpus of this great institution. It was then known as Asafia State Library after the name of Asaf Jah dynasty and was located in Abids. Mr. Syed Tassaduq Hussian an eminent scholar of Eastern Languages, was appointed as Superintendent of this Library and later he became the first Librarian of State Central Library. In course of time, the Asafia State Library emerged as one of the biggest, finest and richest libraries in the world both in terms of print and manuscripts collection.

This library building was constructed on area of 2.974 Acres at a cost of Rs. 5.00 Lakhs under the supervision of the then State Architect and Designer Mr. Aziz Ali and the foundation stone of the building was laid in January, 1932 mainly at the instance of the then H.E.H.Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan.  The construction was completed and the Asafia Library was shifted to this building in 1936 to mark Silver Jubilee of Nizam the VIIth.  The architecture of the building is reminiscent of good old king’s palaces with huge halls and high ceilings.  The Ariel view of the building resembles an open book.