HYDERABAD: Gold. It’s the colour dominating Muhammad Safiullah’s living room. The diaphanous curtains faintly glisten as does his huge collection of photographs, rare coins and paraphernalia that boast of Qutb Shahi and Asaf Jahi periods. The man himself emerges quite a proud collector who loves calling himself ‘an historian by accident’.
And he credits this penchant of his to Nawab Basalat Jah, the youngest of the sixth Nizam and second last of all his siblings. The royal was his neighbour at Himayat Nagar. That’s how a saga into past began for Safiullah the historian, collector and heritage expert. His fascination with the history of Hyderabad is apparent as we spot a big portrait on the wall. It is 130 years old and is of his great grandfather, Mohammad Samiullah, who was the first accountant general of Hyderabad State.
As the managing trustee of Deccan Heritage Trust he recently organised a photo exhibition at Chowmahalla Palace as the year marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Asaf Jah, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad. What’s interesting about this exhibition is that all the photographs belong to the personal collection of the trustee. And this wasn’t collected painstakingly over years, he received it directly from Basalat Jah. He goes back in time reminiscing, “An an 11-year-old school boy I bumped into his highness walking in the street. Being a 70-year-old, he was so courteous to me that he bent down, and said adaab to me.
As a child, it felt so wonderful to me.” From then onwards, for the royal he was almost like his child. He’d go to his house, sit there and talk endlessly. He gets emotional and further adds, “One day, as my Eid gift, Basalat Jah asked me to take a heap of family photographs lying on his dining table.” The royal apparently said: “Le jao iske pahle ki mera irada badal jaye.” He received 1,700 pictures out of which 300 pictures were only of the sixth Nizam. As many as 110 pictures were put on display as part of the exhibition. He had to get the copies made as the original ones were too frail to be exhibited. It was a tough task, but the historian accomplished it.
His affinity with the deceased royal was formed through Basalat Jah his regal neighbour. He shows us the original photographs which are in sepia, hand-painted and even hand-finished. In one of the photographs, Mahboob Pasha, fondly called by his people, is sitting without his headgear.
“Not many have seen him without his cap,” says the historian who is in late forties. It’s not only the photographs that he has collected, there are three libraries in his Himayat Nagar house consisting a vast collection of private letters and documents of the Nizam. In the thin, brittle papers he found what the thought process of Nizam may have been. He reveals, “I cannot present all the letters whose content is very private. But all I can say that he had very strong likes and dislikes and maintained it thus. For example, if he didn’t like something he made sure that the same is removed from his life and state. And why not he was made a ruler when he was barely two and half years old.” We see on a yellowed paper the cursive handwriting of Princess Durru Shehvar. As many as 600 original copies of the letters fill the large almirahs of his house. He elaborates, “In 1999, a scrap dealer from Secunderabad called me. After I reached, he showed me ten gunny bags filled with different documents. I segregated more than 3,000 documents,” he smiles.
The heritage expert further tells about another interesting incident of the Nizam’s life. The royal once wanted to smoke a bidi and paid one asharfi to the shopkeeper for that. Now on being paid in asharfi, it being the gold coin, the poor shop-keeper went to the nearest police station and complained. Later when he was told it was the Nizam himself, he panicked but was soon relieved.
It’s not just photographs and letters that he has in his collection, he has 43 categorised varieties of gold, silver and copper coins ranging from the legendary Qutb Shahi period to the Asaf Jahi time. He shows us the first ever coin of Hyderabad from the time of Qutb Shahi era. A dark exquisite piece with inscription of the sultan on it. He shows another coin with “Qutima bil khair wa saadat written on it,” which means “it has ended well.” Safiullah signs off, “This is from that era of Qutb Shahi rule when the Mughals attacked Deccan. I have exhibited these coins often in the city.”