[Appeselve]

I will finally be starting work on scanning this 2 volume book on Dar al Ulum Deoband:



Its about 900 pages and I'm thinking of doing 20 pages a day which will take about 45 days, so inshaAllah will try to devote my free time to the scanning. Its an amazing store house of knowledge regarding the blessed School chronicling many of its achievements including its services to the ummah as you will inshaAllah find out once its completed.

It was commissioned by the Shura of Deoband under the supervision of Qari Tayyib So you can just imagine how authentic its gonna be

How I wish to do it and other info:

1. It will be in searchable PDF format, gray-scale mode
2. I think once complete the book will be of no use anymore as I will be removing all the pages one by one and then scan it, its a hard-cover.
3. This book as far as I know is out of print [the English edition of it] and only available in the bookstore managed by Deoband. Don't know how many copies are even there yet.
4. The book I have with me which I will be scanning was printed in 1980, a 32 year old copy.

What I need:

1. Members who can select the text from the PDF file and create it in word format and also index it so that it becomes searchable through Google.
2. Ways to make the process better and easier, scanning as well as indexing.

And most importantly,

3. I have done a cursory search through Google and not found this book scanned before, yet, can anybody do a recheck please before I start?

[Appeselve]

[Heaneisismich]

What I need:

1. Members who can select the text from the PDF file and create it in word format and also index it so that it becomes searchable through Google.
2. Ways to make the process better and easier, scanning as well as indexing.

may Allah Rabbul 'Izzat put Barakah in your time and reward your efforts

1. I have started something similar with http://hayatus-sahabah.tumblr.com/ I would suggest creating a couple of tumblr blogs for each volume.

This is due to site reliability issues but also a blogging/CMS platform like tumblr or WordPress will enable this crowd sourced effort to be carried out efficiently.

2. I would suggest looking into http://www.diybookscanner.org/ Its basically using a digital camera to take a picture of each page of the book instead of using a flat bed scanner.

A Traditional flat bed scanner is too slow and laborious. A basic DIY setup using a digital camera can easily scan an entire 900 page book in a few hours.

I have experiment with a similar setup and was quite pleased with the results. The software for processing is fairly straight forward to use and results are Alhamdulillah very good.

Ideally you would want to use some Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to recognise all the text and then proof read, edit so you get the actual text of the book and not just images of each page, which is what you have already covered in 1.

[Appeselve]

may Allah Rabbul 'Izzat put Barakah in your time and reward your efforts

1. I have started something similar with http://hayatus-sahabah.tumblr.com/ I would suggest creating a couple of tumblr blogs for each volume.

This is due to site reliability issues but also a blogging/CMS platform like tumblr or WordPress will enable this crowd sourced effort to be carried out efficiently.

2. I would suggest looking into http://www.diybookscanner.org/ Its basically using a digital camera to take a picture of each page of the book instead of using a flat bed scanner.

A Traditional flat bed scanner is too slow and laborious. A basic DIY setup using a digital camera can easily scan an entire 900 page book in a few hours.

I have experiment with a similar setup and was quite pleased with the results. The software for processing is fairly straight forward to use and results are Alhamdulillah very good.

Ideally you would want to use some Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to recognise all the text and then proof read, edit so you get the actual text of the book and not just images of each page, which is what you have already covered in 1.

! Did you actually did all of that bro, seriously wow.

But HuS is already available in English on Archive.org in many many formats..

For me at the moment it all seems its gonna take a lot of time and effort, my HP scanner already has an OCR software and which is why I will be doing a searchable PDF so that it becomes easy to copy the text out of it..

for your suggestion.

Anyways, see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULe03...eature=related

But this takes the cake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmhIJOqepVU

[Appeselve]

I have scanned the first 2 pages in 'Searchable-PDF' mode:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5z...WVPSmdYQWhwY3c

Download or search for the pages, search for 'deoband' or anything else. So it works. Right now, this is enough.

Did anyone search if the book is already available on the net please? Please check and let me know soon.

[apannamma]

Ma'sha Allah, been waiting for this. I even saw its picture on your blog when you had it up.

After a search on google, only found references to the book, but no scanned copies.

Brother pluto, are you going to take the book apart? That's so painful. Maybe you can get it photocopied - I think they call it "photostat" in India, at the local bookstore/publisher?

I would love to buy the book from you, hint hint... (don't worry too much about this)

Edit: The "Inland" and "Foreign" Pricing on the scan is funny.

[Appeselve]

Ma'sha Allah, been waiting for this. I even saw its picture on your blog when you had it up.

After a search on google, only found references to the book, but no scanned copies.

Brother pluto, are you going to take the book apart? That's so painful. Maybe you can get it photocopied - I think they call it "photostat" in India, at the local bookstore?

I would love to buy the book from you, hint hint...

Edit: The "Inland" and "Foreign" Pricing on the scan is funny.

Sis, I was actually awaiting your reply on this as you had said you would help with the indexing / proof reading stuff in that thread many many months ago...

Divine decree I must say

1. Even if its photocopied, for a proper scanning to happen they too will take the book apart as its a hard cover and it wouldn't be good to see people to strain their necks to read it.
2. This book I'm sure will be referenced a lot once Ulamah's see its contents, but I'll try as much as possible to see if I can save it.

3. I think even Rs.135/- in the 80's was something and $ 13...hmm...at that time, in the days of Raj, it was hard to just find any service to send things outside the country, so I think that price is okay..Allahu Alam.

4. You know something, I did get a copy of the book, again a 30 year old copy for a member here through one of my bro's pals, lucky friend of Deoband he is...

that's a big hint there.

Lets see about the book once its scanned...

I'm just happy the women of the Ummah are showing interest in Deen, Allahumma Barik Fihee.



p.s: Later I will upload an unbelievably amazing story that happened at Deoband in 1875. Its chronicled in the book.

[Heaneisismich]

! Did you actually did all of that bro, seriously wow.

But HuS is already available in English on Archive.org in many many formats..

For me at the moment it all seems its gonna take a lot of time and effort, my HP scanner already has an OCR software and which is why I will be doing a searchable PDF so that it becomes easy to copy the text out of it..

for your suggestion.

Anyways, see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULe03...eature=related

But this takes the cake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmhIJOqepVU

The setup was much more straight forward as you improvise a lot of it. Definitely much faster then a flatbed scanner.

The version available on archive.org has had a very simple OCR process performed on the scanned PDF documents, if you look at some sample text quoted below, a lot of editing is required especially with the names and more importantly the correct Salaat and Salaam on Nabi and Sahabah

Ideally we would get a first class ebook, which would be fitting for a book like Hayatus Sahabah.

"Rasulullaah {JSP would commend anything good and encourage it. On the
other hand, he condemned anything evil and discouraged it. He chose the
moderate path in all matters and was never contradictory. He was never
negligent of the Deeni welfare of the people so that they did not grow negligent
towards the Deen or turn away from it altogether. He had a method of dealing
with every situation without compromising on the rights of any person nor
transgressing them in any way. The best of people were in his attendance and
those that he regarded as the most virtuous were the ones who wished the best
for others. In his estimation, the highest ranking people were those who
sympathised most with people and assisted them most."

Hadhrat Husayn SBSsl>e> narrates that he further asked his father about the
gatherings that Rasulullaah Wi$s held. Hadhrat Ali *g})3@« replied, "Rasulullaah
W80: never sat or stood without Dhikr on his tongue. He would never reserve a
place for himself (in the Masjid) and also forbade others from doing this.
Whenever he arrived in a gathering, he sat on the fringe of the gathering and



T HE LIVES OF THE SAHABAH j$B)£i@?e> (Vol-1) 6T_

instructed people to do the same. He gave equal attention to each person in the
gathering so that all of them thought that they were the most honoured.
Whenever a person sat with him or stood with him to address a need,
Rasulullaah ^$1 remained with him patiently until the person himself took
leave. When anyone asked him for anything, he would give the person his need
or kindly tell the person that he did not have the means to fulfil the need."

[apannamma]

Yes, I will help with the proof reading in'sha Allah. I will be reading the book as you post so it'll be just one step extra. Although, it won't be 20 pages a day, more like 1-5 pages a day. I hope we can get some more people to help out. Not sure about the indexing, if you could post some details how you are looking to go about it.

The OCR from the 2 pages seems decent, but it will need a bit of work when moving to MS word.

That's great if you can arrange a copy. Are you also able to get a set of the 10 vol. set of bayans of Hazrat Yusuf Khandelwi (rahmatullahi alaihi)? I saw your offer on another thread. I've been looking to get the set.

And true, what you mentioned about the price in the 80s. Just 15 years ago, we could buy a whole bag of goodies for "pacchis paise" (25 cents)

[whatisthebluepill]

That's great if you can arrange a copy. Are you also able to get a set of the 10 vol. set of bayans of Hazrat Yusuf Khandelwi (rahmatullahi alaihi)? I saw your offer on another thread. I've been looking to get the set.

Were you considering translating some of his Bayans into English?

(Oh snap, please say yes).

[apannamma]

Were you considering translating some of his Bayans into English?

(Oh snap, please say yes).

I was planning to read them. As for translating, I'm not sure, because I don't know a lot of the terminologies used specifically in the movement. I would need assistance of someone who knows the effort as well as the urdu language.

And translating is a very lengthy task. One book of 200 pages took me one solid month last time.