City of Nizams. Hyderabad was built in the 1580s to accomidate the growing size of nearby Golconda. For centuries it was one of the richest cities in India due to the wealth that the Golconda diamond mines, the only known diamond mines in the world until the late 18th century, brought in. The Hope Diamond was mined there, and its “cursed” history is thought to be because it was stolen from the eye of a statue of Sita (the story was invented in the Victorian era, and not reliable).
In 1591, Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah (above), the Sultan of Golconda built a mosque at the center of the city with four roads heading out in the cardinal directions, supposedly because he wanted to build the city based on the map of heaven provided in the Qu’ran. The grounds of the Taj Mahal, which was built 50 years after the Charminar, are also based on this map.
The Russian mystic H. P. Blavatsky wrote about the Charminar in her travelogue “From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan“:
in the unanimous opinion of travelers and antiquarians, the most interesting building of Hyderabad is Chahar-Minar, a college that was built by Mohamed-Kuli-Khan on the ruins of a still more ancient college. It is built at the crossing of four streets, on four arches, which are so high that loaded camels and elephants with their turrets pass through freely. Over these arches rise the several stories of the college. Each story once was destined for a separate branch of learning. Alas! the times when India studied philosophy and astronomy at the feet of her great sages are gone, and the English have transformed the college itself into a warehouse. The hall, which served for the study of astronomy, and was filled with quaint, medieval apparatus, is now used for a depot of opium; and the hall of philosophy contains huge boxes of liqueurs, rum and champagne, which are prohibited by the Koran, as well as by the Brahmans.
Enchanting, but it’s best to take Blavatsky’s words with a grain of salt. The Charminar was built as a mosque, which is on the fourth floor of the building (closed to the public).
Hyderabad is a mix of two cultures, Hindu and Muslim. Hindus speak primarily Telugu, while Muslims primarily speak Urdu. All signs are in English and one of these languages, while official signs are in all three.
The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan, who started expanding the Mughal Empire into the Deccan during his reign. His son, Aurangzeb, completed the conquests in 1687 after he conquered and sacked Hyderabad. He ended the Qutb Shah dynasty. This was especially pleasing to Aurangzeb, a Sunni Muslim, who defeated the Shi’ite Qutb Shah dynasty, who culturally identified themselves with Safavid Persia, a longtime foe of the Mughals. One of Shah Jahan’s humiliating defeats was when Kandahar was conquered by the Persians in 1653.
Muhammed Qutb Shah had begun building the Mecca Masjid, just south of the Charminar, in 1617. It was finally completed in 1694 when Aurangzeb ruled the city.
After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, Hyderabad State declared itself independent in 1724, and by that time, the next dynasty of rulers, the Nizams (named after the first, Nizam Ali Khan) came to power. The French had a resident in Hyderabad by 1756, but withdrew after the Seven Years War.
One of the places I didn’t get to was the British Residency, built by James Kirkpatrick, the British Resident at Hyderabad at the turn of the 19th century. He’s also the subject of William Dalrymple’s book “White Mughals” which I’m reading now. Kirkpatrick essentially “went native” at a time when such a thing was strongly discouraged by the British East India Company and the Governor-General Lord Wellesly (and his predecessor, Lord Cornwallis. THAT Lord Cornwallis)
Kirkpatrick married Khair-un-Nissa, a Hyderabadi noblewoman (above). Another Englishman who did this was William Palmer, who was the British Resident at Pune until 1800 when he was removed by Lord Wellesly. He left soon afterwards and stayed in Hyderabad, where he became good friends with Kirkpatrick while his wife, Fyze, became good friends with Kahir.
Palmer’s granddaughter, Mary, married the novelist Phillip Meadows Taylor, who was a clerk for the Nizam. Taylor’s novel “Confessions of a Thug” introduced the world to the mysterious Thuggee Cult and introduced the word “thug” into the English language.
Taylor would later write “Seeta” which sympathetically portrayed a marriage between a British civil servant and a Hindu widow.
In 1857, Hyderabad State became a Princely State in British India. The Nizam continued to rule, but the British resident made sure he stayed in line.
During this time, among the many architectural wonders constricuted by the Nizam were Osmania Hospital (above) and the Andhra Pradesh High Court (below and close detail further below)
In 1947, India became an independent nation, and Hyderabad State was given the option to join India, Pakistan or become independent. The Nizam wanted to remain independent, an action that was supported by Pakistan. India launched Operation Polo and removed the Nizam government on September 17, 1948.
In 1956, Hyderabad State was renamed Andhra Pradesh and its borders redrawn after many other states were similarly redrawn along linguistic boundaries (Mysore State became Karnataka, Travancore Cochin state became Kerala and so on)
The Nizam left the throne in 1956 and retired in Australia. He died in 1967. Hyderabad is now a major IT hub, but I couldn’t see much of the IT cities from where I was. The old city still looks old.
