|
Nizam ul-Mulk Asef Jah I, the founder of the kingdom of Hyderabad-Deccan
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On June 1,1948 AD, Qamar od-Din, titled Chin Qilich Khan Nizam ul-Mulk Asef Jah I, the founder of the kingdom of Hyderabad-Deccan in south India, passed away at the age of 77 and was buried in the city of Aurangabad. A scion of the Persianate family of Samarqand (presently in Uzbekistan) tracing its descent to the Iranian mystic, Ziya od-Din Abu'n-Najeeb Suhrawardi (not to be confused with Suhrawardi the Philosopher), he was thus a direct descendent of Mohammad ibn Abu Bakr – the first caliph’s son who was loyal to the cause of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
Born in Agra on 20 August 1671 to Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jung I who served as general to Emperor Aurangzeb and later as governor of Gujarat, his mother was Wazir un-Nisa Begum the daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan’s minister, Sa’dullah Khan. Nizam ul-Mulk was one of the ablest generals and statesmen of the late Mughal period, and disillusioned with the sorry state of affairs in Delhi decided to concentrate on the Deccan where in 1924, he declared his independence.
During the invasion of Nader Shah, he was recalled to north India, and so greatly impressed the Iranian king in the negotiations, that he was offered the rule of all India but politely refused. He was an accomplished poet in Persian and used the pennames Asef and Shakir in his two Divans. The dynasty which he founded ruled for 224 years until its merger in the Indian Union in 1948, a year after end of British rule.
The dynasty, which hosted a large number of Iranian émigrés including statesmen, scholars, artists, and businessmen, greatly contributed to Persian literature, Islamic sciences, architecture, infrastructural-industrial development projects, and later with the establishment of Osmania University in 1918 to the promotion of Urdu language. Hyderabad-Deccan which was closely linked to the Safavid Iran is today the seat of the Iranian Consulate-General for South India.
|
