DAIRATUL MAARIFIL OSMANIA: A BEACON FOR PRESERVING ARAB AND ISLAMIC LITERARY HERITAGE

دائرة المعارف العثمانية منارة صون التراث الأدبي العربي والإسلامي

Abstract

The Dairatul Maarifil Osmania as a source of academic excellence and a keeper of the Arabic and Islamic intellectual tradition. Founded in Hyderabad in the late nineteenth century, this great institution has been at the forefront in offering, editing, and publishing rare manuscripts of classics in Arabic with the highest degree of scholarly accuracy. It has had a significant role in reviving the Arabic literature and Islamic sciences in the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere through its careful editorial practices and critical introductions, as well as, through its natural annotations. The monumental works of the Bureau like the critical edition of classical Arabic works like Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh, Adab, Sciences and History have garnered international recognition among orientalists and other scholars.