Iqbal Manzil
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Iqbal Manzil is the birth place of famous poet Dr Muhammad Iqbal in the centre of the historic city of Sialkot[1]. It has been converted in to a museum cum library. Iqbal Manzil was purchased in 1861 by Mohammad Rafique, the grandfather of Dr Mohammed Iqbal. The house was originally very small, but each successor kept adding to it and the building grew in size. After the death of his father, Iqbal named his elder brother, Ata Mohammad, the owner of the house. Ata Mohammed left two sons after his death who left the house and took up residences in Karachi and Lahore. Many tourists come especially to Sialkot to take a look at the poet’s home, which has now been restored as part of national heritage, where he lived and wrote poetry that one day would make him the legend that he is. The Government of Pakistan bought Iqbal Manzil for its restoration in 1971 and handed it over to the Archaeology Department, who aptly accorded it the status of a cultural heritage. After some renovation, Iqbal Manzil was converted into a library-cum-museum. The museum was inaugurated in 1977.The museum consists of a guided tour of some rooms of the mansion, and displays some furniture and other objects used by Allama Iqbal. Riaz Hussain Naqvi has been the curator at the Iqbal Manzil since 1986. In these last 18 years, he has been immersed completely in the restoration and rebuilding of this crumbling historic building. He has been successful in refurbishing the building to quite an extent, but he still has many ambitious plans for the late Poet’s house. Cracks appeared several years ago in almost all the walls of the building. The Sialkot district government has repaired the cracked walls of 147-year-old Iqbal Manzil. Now the walls have been repaired and whitewashed, and the second storey of the three-storeyed building has been carpeted. The management has displayed some rare pictures of Allama Iqbal, his family, teachers, class fellows and other leaders of the All India Muslim League at the building. Most of these photos hold autographs of Dr Muhammad Iqbal. After the renovation, over 200 people visit the ancient place every day. The Punjab government promise to establish an advanced research centre at Iqbal Manzil has yet to be materialised. A room of Iqbal Manzil houses a more than 4,000 old books, among them 2,000 are on Iqbaliyat. It is planned to build a large library by collecting books, both on and by Iqbal, from all over the world where research could being conducted on the poet and his works. This library has already facilitated 5 students to attain their PhD degree on the works of Iqbal.
