118 Sherif
Hyderabad was the largest of the princely states and possessed its own cur-
rency, the kildar. In Pickthall’s time, the ruler or Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir
Osman Ali Khan (born 1886), was the seventh in the Asafiya dynasty. With this
“no objection” from the Resident, the way was cleared for him to take up an
educational post in Hyderabad, at a starting monthly salary of 1,000 kildars.35
It was also the start of a long working relationship with the politically astute
Akbar Nazarali Hydari, a prominent member of the Bombay Muslim elite. The
“declaration” which Pickthall was required to sign explicitly banned political
activity. Pickthall’s next ten years were significant as an educationalist, man of
letters and Quranic scholar.36 However, did he really become a political quiet-
ist as demanded by the Declaration, after a life time of activism?
The Nizam and his ministers were adept at charting a political course with
care and skill, seeking as much autonomy as possible while avoiding restrictions
and interventions by the Political Resident. For example, while Khilafatist ac-
tivity was banned in the early 1920s, Osman Ali Khan later provided a pension
to the exiled Caliph Abdul Majid ii. He was famous for generous donations
for the upkeep of the haramain in the Hejaz and when the Syrian population
was suffering from French military attacks in 1925, he donated £2,000.37 The
Raj’s approach too was subtle, conferring him the title of “His Royal Highness”
while also noting his inclination “to support the Islamic power in and outside
India”.38
Akbar Hydari, responsible for Pickthall’s employment in Hyderabad,
was regarded by the Raj with a mixture of admiration and hostility: he was
a “ capable Muhammedan gentleman” but “had failed to oppose the Nizam’s
malpractices and had provided funds against the Government of India’s inter-
vention policy”.39 Among the funds allocated by Hydari were for the Osmania
University, unique as a centre for higher education adopting the Urdu me-
dium of instruction. Its very name linked Hyderabad’s Muslim rule with the
Ottomans – Osmanli being a synonym for Ottoman. In one Political Resident’s
assessment, Hydari was “a cultivated gentleman [...] receptive, clear headed,
broad-minded and far-sighted, except where religious questions are involved,
35 Ashraf, Sayyid Daud, Behruni Arbab-i-Kamal Aur Hyderabad (Men of achievement from
abroad and Hyderabad) (Hyderabad: Shugoofa Publications, 2005), 273–74.
36 Clark, Marmaduke Pickthall, 59 – 68.
37 For the Nizam’s donations for the repair of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, see ior,
L/P&S/10/1141, p. 656, note dated 30 May 1927; for details of donations to Syria and Damas-
cus in 1925 see ior, R/1/4/2173 (2), Telegram R. No. 1971, 7 December 1931.
38 ior, R/1/1/2425, File No. 373-P (Secret), 1933, 28.
39 ior, R/1/5/66, Hyderabad Political Notebook 1919–1945; the quotation is from the Political
Resident, Sir William Barton, to the Government of India (Delhi).