کتاب ‌خانه

Welcome to The Kitāb Khāna, the digital home for some of my work as a historian of the Islamicate and Persianate worlds. My research explores the art, literary culture, and devotional practices that animated South Asia, Central Asia, and the wider Islamicate sphere. I study the world of the manuscript including its makers, its patrons, its readers and the intellectual and aesthetic conversations that unfolded across courts, shrines, and dispersive networks of scholars.

As an extension of this space, I also imagine a Khānaqāh-i ʿIlm, a “hermitage of knowledge”, where reading, reflection, teaching, and dialogue come together. If the kitāb khāna is a library or atelier, the khānaqāh-i ʿilm is its inner sanctuary: a space for contemplation, generosity, and the slow work of thinking across traditions.

Together, these ideas shape my approach as a professor. I teach with the conviction that the humanities are living practices, and that to study the world of the book is to encounter people, ideas, and histories that continue to resonate today.

I hope this site offers a glimpse into that world and invites you to enter, explore, and learn alongside it.

- Harpreet Kaur