Your second home as a student — the hawzah libraries, Qum's public and specialist collections, and the digital libraries that put thousands of books a click away.
Libraries hold immense significance for seminary students, serving as invaluable resources for both academic and spiritual growth. In truth, your second home should be a quiet place to read and study. SIOS, like many other hawzahs, has an ever-growing library that provides students and researchers with relevant, up-to-date material, along with a calm environment in which to concentrate and reflect.
Beyond the libraries within each hawzah, Qum also has a large selection of public and specialist libraries offering access to vast collections of classical and contemporary works, with dedicated research and study areas. A selection is listed below — all require membership and all provide private study areas.
General & public libraries
| Library | Loan facility | Opening hours | Address | Telephone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Library / Lady Masumah (a) Public Library | Yes | 08:00–23:00 | Jami Fatimi Courtyard, Shrine of Lady Masumah (a) | 3784 0751 · 3784 0753 |
| Library of Grand Ayatullah Burujurdi (ra) | — | 08:00–19:00 | Masjid Azam, Shrine of Lady Masumah (a) | 3783 7744 |
| Library of Grand Ayatullah Hairi (ra) | Yes | 08:00–20:00 | Madrassah Fayziyyah, beside the Shrine of Lady Masumah (a) | 3774 1483 · 3784 1820 |
| Library of Grand Ayatullah Marashi Najafi (ra) | — | 08:00–19:00 | Iram Street, opposite Passage Quds | 3774 1970 · 3774 1978 |
| The Office of Propagation’s General Library | Yes | 08:00–19:00 | Muallim Street, after Bustan Kitab Bookstore | 3115 1271 |
Specialist libraries
| Library | Loan facility | Opening hours | Address | Telephone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The History of Islam and Iran Specialist Library | Yes | 08:00–Maghrib | No. 8, 11th Alley, Shahid Rajai Street, Sumayyah Street | 3773 1355 |
| The Intellectual Sciences Specialist Library | Yes | 09:00–18:00 | No. 5, first left on 10th Alley, 19th Dey Street (Bajek) | 3775 7610 · 3775 7611 |
| The Iranian Institute of Philosophy Library | — | 08:00–15:00 | No. 71, 3rd Alley, Danish Street, Saduqi Boulevard | 3294 1250 |
| The Jurisprudence and its Principles Specialist Library | — | 07:00–21:00 | Muallim Circle, Markaz Fiqhi Aimmah Athar | 3774 9494 |
Digital libraries
Advances in technology have made it easy to access extensive collections of books online. With just a few clicks you can now find almost any title through websites such as Narges Library and Shiabooks, which provide PDF books categorised by subject, with a search facility to refine by book or author. All books are free to download; however, the PDFs are often scans of the original printed books, which sometimes compromises text quality and reading comfort and disrupts the in-PDF search.
Another popular website among seminary students is eShia — also freely accessible. As with the other two, books are categorised by subject and you can search for specific titles or authors. eShia can be easier to read, as its books are rendered as text rather than scans, and there is an option to download a range of pages from any book (up to 30 pages) in PDF form.
For an even larger digital collection, see also Noorlib and the wider Noor software ecosystem.
Comments & suggestions
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