AKL Digital Collections

The Aga Khan Library is a significant library for scholarly engagement in the field of Islamic studies with a focus on Ismaili studies and Muslim civilisations. The library houses a growing collection of over 50,000 titles, covering a range of subjects, historical and contemporary, on Islam in English, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Gujarati, and Sindhi, among many other languages.

At present, the Aga Khan Library holds more than 1000 titles in its rare books collection. The collection includes manuscripts, out-of-print and first editions of essential titles in the field of Islamic studies. These books have been acquired either through generous donations or proactive acquisitions. At the heart of the collection, there is an impressive selection of Ottoman books, as well as precious items from the personal collections of renowned academics: the late Prof Annemarie Schimmel, the late Prof Peter Avery, and Dr Farhad Daftary. The library is fortunate to have benefitted from the donation of the personal archive of the late Prof. Mohammed Arkoun.

In 2019, the Aga Khan Library embarked on developing the Digital Collections platform, a project intended to preserve, display, and facilitate research in a selection of materials from its rare books collection. The Aga Khan Library recognises the fundamental support of generous donors for this project.

The Aga Khan Library gratefully acknowledges the generosity of

Bahadurali & Jenny Ahmed Family

Malik & Shela Karimi Family

Shiraz & Naseem Kassam Family

Canon of Medicine

Muwatta’ al-Imam Muhammad

Ash-Shifa

Gulshan-i Raz

Dabestān-e Mazāheb

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