Author: John Zubrzycki
Publisher: Picador India
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 382
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9781447218890
Description
The Rise and Fall of India’s Greatest Princely State
The Last Nizam is the story of an extraordinary dynasty, the Nizams of Hyderabad, and how the heir to India's richest princely state gave up a kingdom and retired to the dusty paddocks of outback Australia. With vivid detail and anecdote John Zubrzycki charts the rise of the Nizams to fabulous wealth and prominence under the Mughal emperors of India, giving a rich and vibrant portrait of a realm soaked in blood and intrigue.
Above all he describes the strange –sometimes comic, sometimes tragic–life of Mukarram Jah, His Exalted Highness, the Rustam of the Age, the Aristotle of the Times, Wal Mamaluk, Asaf Jah VIII, the Conqueror of Dominions, the Regulator of the Realm, Nawab Mir Barakat Ali Khan Bahadur, The Victor in Battles, the Leader of Armies, the last Nizam, the man who left behind the diamonds of Golconda and the palaces of Hyderabad to drive bulldozers in the Australian bush.
A delicate and detailed work, The Last Nizam adds a crucial chapter to the history of India, capturing the very scent of wine, women and wealth whose appetites kept the Nizams in news and scandal while simultaneously deepening their legend.
COMMENTS:
“John Zubrzycki has pulled off a remarkable coup. The Last Nizam is the sort of amazing, jaw-dropping and almost completely unexplored and unwritten story that writers of non-fiction spend their lives dreaming of.”
--- William Dalrymple
“One has to be exhilarated by the contradictions and wonders of this story. It is a tale told with a novelist's vivacity, a first-class narrator's eye for pace, and a poet's sensibility for language, and is a delightful read.”
--- Thomas Keneally
Contents
Introduction
1. The Ghosts of Golconda
2. In the Court of Hyderabad
3. Poor Nizzy Pays for All
4. Regulators of the Realm
5. A Very Eastern Pantomime
6. Shahs, Sultans, Kings and Caliphs
7. Bounty of God, Blessed by Allah
8. Operation Polo
9. The Faqir's Curse
10. The Palace of the Four Pavilions
11. The Darbar in the Desert
12. 'Life's Not Supposed to be Easy'
13. Like Discs of the Setting Sun
14. Losing It
Epilogue
Endnotes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index