His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Mukarram Jah Bahadur

Welcome! 
You have come to the crown of the caliphate, a great blessing.
You have arrived at the pinnacle of fortune and prosperity, welcome!
Victory and success have accompanied you, welcome!
As the standard-bearer of prophethood, you have arrived, welcome!
The gates of the caliphate have opened again, welcome!
You have come as the solution to governance, welcome!
O light of brotherhood, you have come, welcome!
With grandeur and splendor, you have awakened the dormant world,
You have illuminated the kingdom and nation, welcome!
For the garden of aspirations, you have come as a flourishing flower, welcome!
With your arrival in Deccan, the spirit of illumination has returned,
A legacy has revived, pouring blessings upon it,
A grand sip from the timeless chalice of Usman Khan.*
The poor are now comforted,
The destitute and helpless find refuge,
Even strangers are guided to a noble path.
In this realm, a voice has risen—
The pride of Hindustan, The glory of Islam
Indeed, you are the manifestation of a divine blessing in Deccan,
*The fulfillment of the caliphal aspirations linked to Ottoman Usman Khan I.

— Rahbar-E-Deccan 1931. Wali Ahad Number.
Crown Prince Special Edition.
Al Sharif Ahmed Mohiuddin, Al Sharif Yusufuddin.
68 pages. Pg. 40. Rahbar-E-Deccan Press,
Afzal Ganj, Hyderabad

t was said the Nizam would keep the Caliphal Crown in trust until his grandson Mukarram Jah was of legal age to ascend to the Nizam’s throne as his heir, and also the Caliphal Crown from his maternal grandfather.

TIME Magazine reported, “…Hyderabad’s ruling Nizam tried to get himself proclaimed Caliph. To pious Moslems his ambition was shocking. They squelched it. But the “secret engagement” of Caliph’s daughter and Nizam’s heir…struck many Moslems as a happy thought. Should these young people wed and have a man child, temporal and spiritual strains would richly blend in him. He could be proclaimed “The True Caliph.””

However, the combination of World War II, the Caliph’s unexpected demise, the pressure of Turkey on the British Raj to prevent the claiming of the right to the Caliphate by the erstwhile Royal Family of Hyderabad, and the political turmoil in India and Hyderabad made it impossible for His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad to fly out to Paris, accept the interim Caliphal Crown, conduct the Caliph’s funeral and bring his mortal remains back to Hyderabad for burial at Khuldabad.

The political chaos in India eventually led to the British Raj’s overthrow by India’s freedom fighters, so many Muslims from whom among the leaders of Deoband fought to oust the British to gain independence for Indian Muslims, and thereby enable the Nizam to the Caliphal Crown had arrived in the Deccan, despite the political institution being legally abolished since 1924.

These Muslims dreamed of having a monarch with the title of the Caliphal Crown in Hyderabad, and the Nizam arranged succession to it for his grandson.

Faced with such turmoil, immediate public succession to the Caliphal Crown seemed impossible at best, as according to Muslim law, a Caliph could only be buried after his successor ascends to his position by accepting the papers to the office and or making his official proclamation of succession to the Caliphal Crown.

Hence it was decided to postpone the burial of the late Caliph, keeping his body uninterred in the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Then, in 1947 India finally gained its Independence from the British Raj, but in 1948 Hyderabad was annexed into India and the Nizam lost his kingdom, all while the Caliph’s mortal remains remained in uninterred in Paris.

No one in the Muslim world could legally challenge the Nizam’s grandson for the office, as he was named in the Will of the Caliph, nor could the Nizam officially go to Paris to accept as interim the Caliphal Crown and thereafter conduct the Caliph’s funeral, and proclaim his grandson the successor to the Caliphal Crown of his maternal grandfater.

Unbelievably, the Caliph’s mortal remains were uninterred at the Grand Mosque of Paris for another 10 years, unburied, until a breakthrough negotiation took place in 1954.

In 1954 Princess Durru Shehvar, the late Caliph’s daughter, and the now deposed Nizam of Hyderabad’s daughter-in-law, brokered a deal through her cousin Princess Nilofer.

In this deal, the Caliphal Crown willed by the late Caliph to his grandson Prince Mukarram Jah – held in trust by His Exalted Highness VII Nizam of Hyderabad until Jah was ready to succeed him as well – would now make their way back to Hyderabad after all, but the mortal remains of the Caliph would not, in recognition of the Muslim world’s collective will through silence to keep the political institution of the Caliphate abolished since 1924.

Instead, the Caliph’s remains would be laid to rest in an unmarked grave, likely to break the link between the Republic of Turkey and the Caliph’s would be successor in Hyderabad.

This deal was made with none other than Saudi Arabia’s gracious King Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who conditioned permission to bury the last Caliph in Madinah at Al Baqi cemetery upon the Nizam and the Caliph’s daughter respecting the collective wishes of the Arab and Islamic world.

The Caliph’s mortal remains finally arrived from Paris to Medina by 1954, a decade after his demise.

The theory is, the documents of the transfer of the Caliphal Crown was then held in trust for His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad by King Saud, and the Nizam was proclaimed the Caliph’s successor to the Caliphal Crown, interim albeit, before his burial, thereby satisfying the requirements of the religious law – that the earth not be void of a Caliph.

Following the Caliph’s burial in an unmarked grave in Al Baqi, King Saud then traveled to Hyderabad to meet the deposed Nizam.

On December 5th, 1955 the His Majesty King Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud met in Hyderabad the deposed Nizam and the deed to the Caliphal Crown was transferred. This deed was subsequently kept with the Nizam’s Military Secretary in preparation of Mukarram Jah’s succession to both the Nizam and the Caliphal Crown of his maternal grandfather.

The Nizam’s and the late Caliph’s arrangement was finally realized, except one minor detail, the Nizam lost his throne in the meanwhile, leaving his successor and the Caliph’s successor to the Caliphal Crown – His Exalted Highness Mir Barket Ali Khan Mukarram Jah Bahadur – without a kingdom.

His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Mukarram Jah Bahadur, VIII Nizam of Hyderabad

After the Nizam’s death in 1967, his grandson Prince Mukarram Jah Bahadur became VIII Nizam of Hyderabad, but for reasons unknown, the deed was deposited by the Nizam’s private military with the House of Imam ud-Daula where it remained since, awaiting His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Prince Mukarram Jah, its rightful legal heir, to claim it.

In January 2023, Black flags were raised all over the Old City of Hyderabad in mourning for the VIII Nizam who died while in self-exile in Turkey, and subsequently the House of Imam ud-Daula immediately recognized his eldest son and legal heir Prince Azmet Jah Bahadur as legal pretender to the customary and cultural title of IX Nizam of Hyderabad in hope he would claim the grand title of Caliph in their possession to himself, as Jah’s eldest son and successor.

However, in his wisdom, like his father, His Exalted Highness Prince Azmet Jah Bahadur, IX Nizam of Hyderabad did not claim the title of his father’s maternal grandfather either.

As a result of late Prince Mukarram Jah’s abjuration and refusal throughout his life to claim and serve the non-political, cultural Caliphal Crown willed to him and transferred to Hyderabad for him by his maternal grandfather, despite legally proclaiming himself ‘His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Nizam of Hyderabad’ in succession to his paternal grandfather, the House of Imam ud-Daula continues to be compelled by Muslim law to hold in trust the Caliphal Crown on behalf of the erstwhile Royal Family of Hyderabad State.

The unbroken chain of the over 1400 years old Caliphal Crown – was transferred from the Imperial House of Osman for Prince Mukarram Jah to claim as VIII Nizam of Hyderabad – in trust to His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VII Mir Osman Ali Khan, VII Nizam of Hyderabad. His Exalted Highness Mir Osman Ali Khan in turn instructed his private military to keep it deposited with the Imam ud-Daula family, until the Caliphal Crown is claimed by its rightful heir late Prince Mukarram Jah. Since both late Prince Mukarram Jah for the duration of his entire life, and after his death his successor Prince Azmet Jah both refused to fulfill their duty to claim it, the Caliphal Crown through its deed, by religious law remains under the Custodianship of the House of Imam ud-Daula indefinitely, the Head of whom in each subsequent generation inherits the ceremonial family title – Imam ul-Mulk, until Prince Mukarram Jah or his legal heirs reclaim it, whereupon it will be returned to them.

Auraaq-e-Maazi: Echoes From the Past

The author of Auraaq-e-Maazi Shahid Husain Zuberi is a descendant of the illustrious Bani Hashem clan. He was closely associated with His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqui, Bayafandi, VIII Nizam of Hyderabad for well near half a century. He knew Mukarram Jah perhaps more intimately than any other person of the times. In his book on Mukarram Jah, Zuberi informs readers, it was His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Prince Mukarram Jah Bahadur himself who told him that it was Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion that the Caliphate be sought by the Nizam State and transferred to Hyderabad. Jah informed Zuberi, his maternal grandfather His Majesty Caliph Abdulmejid II, and about his paternal grandfather His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VII Mir Osman Ali Khan agreed to this and to the Nizam’s ascending to the lofty office of [interim] Caliph of Islam after Abdulmejid II, who sought to be buried in the Nizam’s Hyderabad State.

“Mahatma Gandhi suggested to Mohammad Ali Jauhar that after the decline of the Caliphate in Turkey, the greatest and wealthiest Muslim Princely State was Hyderabad under the Asaf Jahis. If the marriage of the older son of H.E.H. The Nizam, His Highness the Prince of Berar could be arranged with Princess Durre Shahwar, daughter of the dethroned Caliph of Turkey Abdul Majeed, it would be a farsighted move indeed. If the ousted Caliph declared the offspring from this union as the chosen heir of the Caliph, it would be probable that the Caliphate would get transferred to Hyderabad. Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar sent his younger brother Maulana Shaukat Ali with this idea to H.E.H. The Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. The idea was that until their offspring attains maturity, H.E.H. The Nizam of Hyderabad would be the care-taker [interim] Caliph. Pleased with this idea, The Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur put Maulana Shaukat Ali in charge as the carrier of this proposal to the deposed Caliph Abdul Majeed who was residing in the city of Nice in France at the time. Caliph Abdul Majeed was pleased at the proposal; and in furtherance of this idea he later nominated W’aala Shaan Nawab Mukarram Jah Bahadur as his heir. During the discussions regarding the matrimonial alliance of Nawab Azam Jah Bahadur with Princess Durreshahwar, Caliph Abdul Majeed further offered that his niece Princess Niloufer could be given in marriage to the second son of H.E.H. The Nizam of Hyderabad, Prince Nawab Moazzam Jah Bahadur. The two princes travelled with some important persons of the nobility of Hyderabad to France and the weddings took place there. When I discussed this matter with the renowned historian Dr. Dawood Ashraf, he said that the whole negotiation was at the level of private conversations. So there would be no evidence in the archives. As the Nizam government bore the expenses of his journey to France, the record is available in the archives. There is ample proof in the archives and also in an article by Dr. Dawood Ashraf published in Siasat about Maulana Shaukat Ali’s journey to France, it is said that the British Government was favorable towards the idea of this alliance, and gave its support.”

During his period with Mukarram Jah, Zuberi held the positions of GPA to H.E.H. The Nizam VIII; and also Chairman of the H.E.H. The Nizam’s Private Estate. Some of the distinguished positions he held included the following, making him a first hand witness to Jah’s narrative of the transfer of the Caliphate to Hyderabad:

1.) Trustee, H.E.H. The Nizam Trust
2.) Trustee, Sir Ziauddin Ahmed Trust, Aligarh;
3.) Trustee, Urdu Hall Trust, Hyderabad
4.) Trustee, Zaheer Manzil Trust, Hyderabad
5.) Ex-President, Old Boys’ Association, AMU
6.) Secretary, Anjuman Taraqqui-e-Urdu Hind,
7.) Founding Member, Mukarram Jah Hostel
8.) Founding Member Iqbal Academy
9.) Trustee, Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning