LIBRARY
A reference library, and the archive of an Academy
Two of the ten objects in the Academy's Trust Deed concern books: to establish a centre for research into Iqbal's works and the influences that shaped his thought, and to build a reference library around them. Both were begun at Coventry in 1971 and have grown with every conference the Academy has held since.
- Founding object
- Trust Deed, objects 2 & 3
- Held at
- Coventry, England
- Access
- Members & researchers
The charter of the library
From the Trust DeedThe library exists to hold not only Iqbal, but the traditions he read. Its founding brief takes in the Eastern and Western thinkers and writers who shaped his thought — from Rumi, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn 'Arabi and al-Shatibi to McTaggart, Bergson, Whitehead, William James and Dewey — so that his work can be read in the company it kept.
- Establish a centre for research into the works of Iqbal and the influences that shaped his thought.
- Establish an Iqbal reference library covering works by Iqbal himself and by Eastern and Western thinkers and writers who influenced him — including comparative religion, metaphysics, Sufism, science, society, art, literature and history.
In the archive
6 groupsBeside the books, the Academy keeps the record of its own work: the programmes, proceedings, portraits and objects made for fifty years of lectures, conferences and commemorations.
Runs of the Iqbal Review
Including the issues carrying the proceedings of the Academy's own seminars — Iqbal & Mysticism (October–December 1988) and Arnold Day (November 1989).
Quarterly, Urdu and English
Conference programmes and proceedings →
Cordoba 1991, the Barber Institute festival of 1995, Ghent 1997, the Schimmel commemorative seminar of 2003, and the Iqbal in Europe centenary conference of 2008 at SOAS and Trinity College, Cambridge.
1987 onwards
The Gulgee portrait of Iqbal
Inaugurated at the University of Birmingham in April 1992 in the presence of the painter and Professor Sir Michael Atiyah OM, and installed at alma mater, Trinity College, Cambridge, in April 1993.
Commissioned Karachi, 1990
Calligraphy
Including an excerpt from Asrar-i Khudi in the hand of the calligrapher Aziz Ahmed, and the Rasheed Butt calligraphy struck on the Yamani Medallion of 2007. The Academy held an exhibition of Islamic calligraphy at the BBC, Pebble Mill, in March 1998.
Aziz Ahmed · Rasheed Butt
Recordings
The 1992 compact disc of Iqbal's verse sung by celebrated Pakistani artists, and the Spoken Urdu course issued with the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
Ahang-e Iqbal · Spoken Urdu
Manuscript translations
Working translations of the Javid Nama, Gulshan-i Raz-i Jadid and the Rumuz, together with the annotated Asrar-i Khudi carrying notes in Iqbal's own hand.
Saeed A. Durrani
Access
Consulting the collection
The library is a working reference collection rather than a lending library. Members of the Academy and researchers working on Iqbal, on Sufism or on the South Asian presence in Britain are welcome to write to the Hon. Secretary to arrange access, or to ask whether a particular title or programme is held.
Before Iqbal's portrait — January 1990.