The book shop near the Budshah Tomb, has a signboard outside that reads‘ GHULAM MOHD NOOR MOHD TAJRAAN E KUTUB “. This is perhaps the oldest bookshop of Srinagar.

This 133 years old bookshop sells books of literature, religion, philosophy, poetry and various other subjects, in Urdu, Persian and Arabic and was established by Ghulam Mohammad (not the same as Sheikh Ghulam Mohammad of Haji Sheikh Ghulam Mohammad Sons & Tajraan-i-Kutub, whose family too has a similar story and now the grandsons run the Jay Kay Books and Kitab Mahal Publishers Lal Bazar).

Ghulam Mohammad used to travel to Lahore to get books published at the Deen Mohammadi Press in 1899.

“We take pride in calling ourselves the oldest publishers in Kashmir valley…My father went from village to village; from poet to poet, and collected seven hundred years’ worth of lost writing” Says Mohammad Iqbal Kitab, the third surviving son of Noor Mohammad Kitab. Iqbal Mohammad, grandson of Ghulam Mohammad (who had set up the shop with his son Noor Mohammad), has been managing the shop since last 45 years.

Noor Mohammad Kitab is popularly known as ‘Nawal Kishore of Kashmir’, after Munshi Nawal Kishore (1836 – 1895) the famed book publisher of the Sub-Continent. He has been called Caxton of India. Beginning with Sheikh-Ul-Alam, a fourteenth-century Sufi saint, to Ahad Zargar, Noor Mohammad had published extensive works of Kashmiri literature.

In 1890, Noor Mohammad established the first publishing house in Kashmir valley, namely Noor Mohammad Ghulam Mohammad Tajran-e-Kutub

Noor Mohammad had set up a printing press, Kohinoor Press at Koka Bazzar and Noor Mohammadi Press (litho press), near Pratap park in1956, which were moved to Sheikhpora, Budgam where Iqbal’s two older brothers, Ghulam Hamza and Ghulam Murtaza currently run it.

After Noor Mohammad passed away on 5 March 1965, the publishing house started to fall apart. According to Mohammad Iqbal, they were all small children and the family business fell into wrong hands that brought ruin upon it and the shop has now been reduced to a mere stationary shop. Currently, they only print the books that are in high demand and people don’t read much in Kashmiri.

The family, renowned for their centuries of service, earned the endearing nickname ‘Kitab’ among the people of Kashmir and they adopted the title ‘Kitab’ as their family name in acknowledgment of their literary legacy.

In recognition of Noor Mohammad’s work and contribution, the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture, and Languages commemorates his death anniversary on the 5th of March every year. Noor Mohamad was also a writer and has written two books titled Taranai Muslim (The Song of Muslims) and Tareekh E Kashmir (The History of Kashmir). During his lifetime, Noor Mohammad published nearly 250 books in the Kashmiri language, including the works of prominent authors like Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor, Ahad Zargar, and Rehman Rahi.

Apart from renewing the popular poetic works, Noor Mohammad also published books on the anthropology and history of the valley as well. Some of the prominent historic accounts that he recreated were Tareekh-E-Hasan by Morikh Hasan and Waqaat-E-Kashmir by Khawaja Azam Dyedmari. He was also successful in commissioning the first translation of the Holy Quran and the first biography of the Prophet Muhammadin Kashmiri and the first biography of the Prophet Muhammad.