Hyderabad: Prince Mukarram Jah, who was coronated as the eighth Nizam of Hyderabad in 1967, belonged to both the Asafiya and Osmania lineages. His father Nawab Mir Himayat Ali Khan Azam Jah Bahadur was the first son of the seventh and last ruling Nizam and his mother Princess Dürrüşehvar Sultan was the daughter of the former Ottoman Sultan and last Caliph Abdul Mejid II. After Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam passed away, his grandson Mukarram Jah was designated as the Nizam, making him Eighth in line. It was according to the wish of the Seventh Nizam who had chosen his grandson over his son as his successor.
Mukarram Jah was never the ruling Nizam, he was the only Nizam to trace his lineage to Hyderabad and Turkey.
Although the name Osmania, a name designated to the Ottoman ruling house, had become quite popular in Hyderabad even before the marriages of Princes Azam Jah and Moazzam Jah were arranged with Princesses Dürrüşehvar and Niloufer respectively, it was only the eighth titularNizam designate Mukarram Jah who can trace his ancestry to the two great houses of Osmania and Asafiya. Although his brother, Prince Muffakham Jah, was there, he was never designated as the Nizam.
Hyderabad grieves today, not because Mukarram Jah was it’s ruler. It’s because Mukarram Jah had received the unique distinction of being designated as the Nizam even after Hyderabad had acceded to the Indian Union. It was this particular title of the Nizam conferred on him that became the string which attached him to the people of Hyderabad. Otherwise how does a populace without reaping the benefits of administration of a particular ruler share such benevolent emotions with him? After all, he spent lesser part of his life in Hyderabad and more of it in Australia and Turkey making it difficult for people to emotionally get attached to him. Yet, the people in Hyderabad always looked forward to his arrival in the city. His short sojourns in Hyderabad for whatever reason never went unnoticed.
So many Hyderabadis feel proud to be associated with his family even today.
People in Hyderabad would always look forward to his arrival in the city as he remained the last vestige symbolizing the Asaf Jahis who had made Hyderabad State an internationally known State. This time he will come, for his burial, never to go back again. Death has brought him closer to Hyderabad even though during his lifetime he remained away from the city and it’s people who always showered him with respect and affection.
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