Two days after Hyderabad’s eighth titular Nizam Mukarram Jah was buried, his son Mir Azmat Ali Khan Azmet Jah was anointed on 20 January as the “ninth Nizam” of the Asaf Jahi dynasty.
Azmet Jah is the eldest son of the erstwhile Nizam Mukarram and his first wife Princess Esra.
The succession of Prince Azmet Jah was a private affair, unlike the grand coronation of his father in 1967.
Earlier, the body of Nizam Murkkam Jah was laid to rest on 18 January with state honours at Makkah Masjid alongside the other Asaf Jahi rulers.
Who is Azmet Jah?
Azmet Jah (62) was born in British capital London in 1960 when his great-grandfather, Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, was still ruling. After his schooling, he graduated from the University of California in 1984 in cinematography.
Since his childhood, he has had a passion for photography and took up cinematography as his career.
In an interview with the Hyderabad-based magazine You and I in 2020, Azmet said that photography was in his genes.
He said that his grandfather — Mir Osman Ali Khan — loved photography, and his father Mukarram Jah father was a great photographer and took many photos and made home movies on 16 mm cameras.
According to several reports, Azmet has worked with eminent Hollywood filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Lord Richard Attenborough, Nicolas Roeg, Paul Verhoeven, Douglas Slocombe and others.
He is credited with cinematography work in the Lewis Teague directed blockbuster Navy Seals, starring Charlie Sheen.
He is currently making a 90-minute feature documentary on his grandfather, Mir Osman Ali Khan.
In 1996, Azmet married Zeynap Naz Güvendiren, daughter of Turkish national Altan Güvendiren, and has spent most of his life abroad, although he makes occasional visits to Hyderabad, the land his ancestors ruled for generations.
The couple has a son, Murad Ali Jah, who is said to be an underwater photographer and a member of the rugby team at the Univeristy of South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Azmet will also inherit the responsibility of heading the Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning in Pathar Gatti.
Related: Hyderabad bids farewell to its last Nizam with nostalgia
Anointing ceremony
In the declaration issued by Azmet’s office, it was stated that Mukarram desired to anoint Azmet Jah as his successor and the ninth head of the Asaf Jahi dynasty “for all symbolic, ceremonial, titular and ancillary purposes”.
The ceremony was held at the Coronation Hall of the Chowmahalla Place.
Princess Esra, Princess Shehkar, and Nawab Faiz Khan, along with some members of the royal family and close friends, were present during the simple ceremony.
Azmet, who was initially addressed as the “Prince of Hyderabad”, became “His Highness the Prince of Berar” when his father Mukarram Jah became the Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar in 1967.
Now that he has been anointed the 9th Nizam, his official title will be “His Exalted Highness the Nizam”.
