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Muzaffar Jang (Hidayat Muhi-ud-din Khan)

Grandson of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I through a favourite daughter, and governor of Bijapur. He claimed the Deccan on his grandfather's death in 1748, with the help of Chanda Sahib and the French. His uncle Nasir Jang imprisoned him in 1750. He was proclaimed Subahdar when Nasir Jang was murdered in December 1750, and granted the French Masulipatam and other land. The Nawab of Kurnool killed him on the march back to the Deccan early in 1751.

Muzaffar Jang was the son of a daughter of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I, and for a few weeks in 1750–51 the ruler of the Deccan.1 Campbell’s list of the Nizams gives his name as Hidayat Muhi-ud-din Khan.2 His short reign was the high point of French influence at the court of the Asaf Jahis.1

Claim to succeed the Nizam

Briggs says Muzaffar Jang was “a favourite grandson of Nizam-ool-Moolk” and held the governorship of Bijapur.34 Gribble adds that he had been “the old Nizam’s favourite, and was generally supposed to have been designated as his heir”.34 Gribble also says Asaf Jah had made him governor of the upland (Balaghat) Carnatic, with his headquarters at Bijapur.5 Campbell writes that the right of succession was said to have been left to him by his grandfather’s will.6

In 1748 his uncle Nasir Jang took the throne.35 Muzaffar Jang then allied himself with Chanda Sahib, a claimant to the Carnatic, and with Dupleix, the French governor at Pondicherry.35

Gribble describes the war that followed. A French force of 400 Europeans and 2,000 sepoys joined Muzaffar Jang and Chanda Sahib.7 On 23 July they defeated and killed Anwar-ud-din, the Nawab of the Carnatic, at Ambur.7 Muzaffar Jang then proclaimed himself Nizam of the Deccan.7

In 1750 he faced Nasir Jang’s much larger army near Gingee, and his French officers mutinied and withdrew.89 He surrendered on a promise of safety, but was seized and put in chains.89 Briggs gives the length of his imprisonment as seven months.10

Nizam of the Deccan

In December 1750 the Nawab of Cuddapah shot Nasir Jang, and the plotters hailed Muzaffar Jang as Nizam of the Deccan.11 Gribble says he went to Pondicherry to thank Dupleix.1213 He handed over to him the treasure found in Nasir Jang’s camp, and was installed there as Subahdar (governor of the Deccan).1213

He named Dupleix Nawab of the country south of the Krishna, with a personal jagir (land grant) worth a lakh of rupees a year.1213 He took a French force of 300 Europeans and 2,000 sepoys under Bussy as his personal guard.1213

Briggs lists his grants to the French East India Company:14

  • large territory near Pondicherry14
  • the province of Karikal in Tanjore14
  • “the city of Masulipatam, with its dependencies”14

The Imperial Gazetteer of India for Madras dates the grant of Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) to 1750.15

Death

On the march back to the Deccan, the Nawabs of Cuddapah, Kurnool and Savanur, unhappy with their rewards, turned on him. Briggs, quoted by Mudiraj, tells the story. The Nawabs held a narrow pass near “Luckreedpilly”.1416 Muzaffar Jang led the attack himself without waiting for the French.1416 He was, “in the hour of success”, “felled by a javelin launched by the Nuwab of Kurnool”.1416

Briggs dates his death to the end of January 1751.1417 Gribble puts it about six weeks into his reign, and has a spear thrown by the Kurnool Nawab pierce his brain.1417 The Imperial Gazetteer says he was killed by “some Pathan chiefs”.118 The treaty collection of 1909 says he was killed “in a mutiny of his troops”.118

Briggs judged him “a brave and gallant youth, with noble promise of making a great and good monarch”.14 His only son was a minor, so Bussy had Asaf Jah’s third son, Salabat Jang, raised to the throne.1917

Footnotes

  1. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Hyderabad State (1909), p. 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 126 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. Henry George Briggs, The Nizam, Vol. I (1861), p. 55 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. J. D. B. Gribble (ed. M. Pendlebury), A History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 15 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 16 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. A. Claude Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions (1898), p. 124 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 19 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 22 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Briggs, The Nizam (1861), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 26 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 27 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  13. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 28 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  14. Briggs, The Nizam (1861), p. 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  15. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 185 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  16. K. Krishnaswamy Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad, Vol. I (1929), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. Gribble, History of the Deccan, Vol. II (1924), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. C. U. Aitchison, A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, Vol. IX (1909), p. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  19. Briggs, The Nizam (1861), p. 58 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Asaf Jahis (Nizams of Hyderabad)

1724–1948 CE

The dynasty of the Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948). It was founded by the Mughal viceroy Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, who made himself independent in the Deccan after defeating Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda in 1724. After his death the French and the English backed rival heirs. The Northern Circars passed to the French in 1753 and to the English in 1766, and the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema to the East India Company in 1800, leaving Telangana as the Telugu heart of the Nizam's Dominions. Bound to the British by the subsidiary alliance of 1798–1800, the Nizams governed through ministers such as Chandu Lal and Salar Jung I. They assigned Berar to the British in 1853 and leased it in 1902. Mir Osman Ali Khan's reign brought Osmania University and the rebuilding of Hyderabad, and his government ended in September 1948.

References

Sources (7)
  1. J. D. B. Gribble (edited and finished by Mary Pendlebury), A History of the Deccan, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), Luzac & Co., London, 1924, pp. 15–16, 19, 22–23, 26–29. [Public domain]
  2. Henry George Briggs, The Nizam: His History and Relations with the British Government, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Bernard Quaritch, London, 1861, pp. 55–58. [Public domain]
  3. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Hyderabad State (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 15. [Public domain]
  4. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 185. [Public domain]
  5. C. U. Aitchison (compiler), A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads relating to India and Neighbouring Countries, Vol. IX: Hyderabad, Mysore and Coorg (4th ed.) (opens in a new tab), Superintendent, Government Printing, India, Calcutta, 1909, pp. 1. [Public domain]
  6. K. Krishnaswamy Mudiraj, Pictorial Hyderabad, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Chandrakanth Press, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1929, pp. 56–57. [Public domain]
  7. A. Claude Campbell, Glimpses of the Nizam's Dominions, Being an Exhaustive Photographic History of the Hyderabad State, Deccan, India (opens in a new tab), C. B. Burrows, Bombay, 1898, pp. 124, 126. [Public domain]

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