His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VIII Mukarram Jah Bahadur

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.””

It was said the Nizam would keep the Caliphate in trust until Mukarram Jah was of age to ascend to the Nizam’s throne as his heir, and would also transfer to him the Caliphate from his maternal grandfather.

However, the combination of World War II, the Caliph’s unexpected demise, the pressure of Turkey on the British Raj to prevent the transfer of the Caliphate, 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 office of Caliphate as interim Caliph and bring back the Ottoman Caliphs body for burial in 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 declare the grand title of Caliph – distinct from the legally abolished institution of the Caliphate – had arrived in Hindustan in the Deccan.

These Muslims dreamed of having the title Caliph in Hyderabad’s monarchy.

Faced with such turmoil, immediate succession to the Caliph 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 Caliphate.

Hence it was decided to postpone the burial of the Caliph, keeping his body in a cryogenic like state 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 remained in a cryogenic-like frozen state in Paris.

No one in the Muslim world was able to 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 the interim Caliphate and the Caliphate Letters and thereby conduct the Caliphs funeral, and pronounce his grandson the successor to the deceased holder of the abolished office.

Unbelievably, the Caliph’s body remained in a frozen cryogenic-like state 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 Caliph’s daughter and the now deposed Nizam of Hyderabad’s daughter-in-law, brokered a deal through her cousin Princess Nilofeur.

In this deal, the Caliphal Title for young Mukarram Jah’s succession to the abolished institution of the political autocratic Caliphate – which were to be held in trust by the Interim Caliph His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad until Jah was ready to succeed him as well – would now make their way back to Hyderabad after all, but the frozen remains of the Caliph would not, in recognition of the Muslim world’s collective will through silence to keep the political caliphate link to Turkey abolished since 1924.

Instead, the Caliph’s remains would be laid to rest in an unmarked grave, to break the link between Turkey and the legal successor to his title 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 to keep the Turkish Republic’s link to the Caliph title abolished.

After Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union, the deed of the official transfer of the imperial title ‘Caliph’ from His Majesty Abdulmejid II – upon his death – to His Exalted Highness Mir Osman Ali Khan VII Nizam of Hyderabad finally arrived in Hyderabad and remained there since.

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.

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 refusal throughout his life to serve the transferred title of his maternal grandfather, and his abjuration of the title of ‘Caliph’ 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 hold in trust the deed to the unbroken chain of the over 1400 years old cultural title of ‘Caliph’ – transferred from the Imperial House of Osman for Prince Mukarram Jah to claim – to His Exalted Highness Asaf Jah VII Mir Osman Ali Khan, VII Nizam of Hyderabad who in turn instructed his military to keep it deposited with the Imam ud-Daula family until the title is claimed by late Prince Mukarram Jah. Since both late Prince Mukarram Jah nor his successor Prince Azmet Jah refused to claim it, it remains under the Custodianship of the House of Imam ud-Daula indefinitely, the Head of whom inherits the ceremonial cultural title – Imam ul-Mulk.