In 2016, when most people took bank loans to build homes, buy vehicles or start businesses, Ashraf Ali Samoon borrowed money for a different reason entirely: books.

The 55-year-old bibliophile from Tharparkar travelled to India to attend the World Book Fair, organised by India’s National Book Trust, where 1,380 stalls and publishers from 14 countries had gathered under one roof. For Samoon, the trip was less a luxury than a pilgrimage. He returned carrying books worth more than Rs150,000 — close to the same amount that he had borrowed.

What awaited him at home, however, was not celebration. Soon after his return, Samoon was suspended from his government job for not acquiring formal permission to leave — the suspension lasted 32 months.

Yet even that did not loosen his grip on books.

In a modest home in Islamkot, Ashraf Ali Samoon has spent decades building a private library of more than 16,000 books — often at great personal cost

In a modest home in Islamkot, Ashraf Ali Samoon has spent decades building a private library of more than 16,000 books — often at great personal cost

Today, in the desert town of Islamkot, where coal projects and dusty roads dominate the landscape, Samoon has quietly built one of the region’s most remarkable private libraries: a sprawling collection of over 16,000 books, housed inside his modest home.

Samoon was born in the small village of Peeloro Samaan — now called Ahmedabad — near Islamkot, into a religious family. His early education took place in Diplo, before he completed matriculation in Jhuddo, intermediate studies in Mithi and a bachelor’s degree in Matiari.

Samoon’s relationship with books began in childhood, while living with his elder brother, Molvi Muhammad Ahmed, who taught religious studies and kept a small collection of religious texts at home. Curious at first, Samoon soon became consumed by........

© Dawn (Magazines)