Desna is a very old village located on the banks of the River Jerain in Nalanda district of Bihar state in India. It is approximately 2 miles (1 Kos) from Asthavan and 10 miles from Bihar Sharif.
Contents
Map of Desna, Bihar 803107
History
Desna was purely a village (not on any road) and yet became one of the most prominent Muslim villages of Bihar or even of India. Desna's greatness lies in producing great luminaries like Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, Syed Mohammed Saeed Raza, Abdul Qavi Desnavi, Mohammad Siddiq Mukhtar, Dr. Mohammad Imam, Saeed-ul-Huq,( Director of Monitoring, Radio Pakistan) Dr Ansari, Dr Hasan Emam, Dr Ahmad Karim, Khan Bahadur Malik Mohammad Tauhid, Azad Bin Tahir in the days gone by and now Dr Shershah Syed, Dr Tipu Sultan, Dr Seraj Ud Daula, Dr Shahin Zafar.
Desna also had one of the oldest libraries in a village with thousands of old Persian and Urdu manuscripts. After partition of India, during uncertain times of mass emigration to Pakistan, the books were donated to Khuda Bakhsh Khan Library in Patna, where a Desna section was established to house these treasures.
Desna also had a wall with gates encircling the village, defending it from outsiders. For a village, it was amazing that at a time when most of the villages had at best mud houses, Desna had "pucca" houses with paved streets and a sewer system.
Mallicks and Syeds were the prominent communities living side by side.