Modern Hyderabad is the vision of Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan

Last Asaf Jahi ruler ‘Mir Osman Ali Khan’ is best remembered as the architect of modern Hyderabad.

White-washed ‘Judi Masjid’ with a small green gate, quite opposite the famous gateway of Nazri Bagh-King Koti where Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan was laid to rest, was all decked up on the 49th death anniversary of the former ruler in Hyderabad on Sunday

Many do not know that inside ‘Masjid-e-judi’, lays the grave of the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur. While the first Nizam was buried in Aurangabad and the successive five Nizams were laid to rest in the Mecca Masjid near Charminar, it was Osman Ali Khan’s will to be buried at the mosque opposite his residence where his mother Zehra Begum had been laid to rest.

Members of the royal family, religious leaders and scholars at the Maqbira Shahi inside the Judi Masjid paid the floral tributes to Mir Osman Ali khan on Sunday after recitation of Quran on the occasion of his 49th death anniversary.

The mosque was built in 1936 by the Nizam in memory of his favorite son Jawad who had died as an infant. The Nizam VII, born in 1886 and ruled Hyderabad between 1911 and 1948, lived at the King Koti Palace and breathed his last on February 24, 1967.

Historian and managing trustee of Deccan Heritage Trust, Mohd Safiullah, calls the Mir Osman Ali Khan as the greatest Hyderabadi ever for his far-reaching contributions that transformed Hyderabad into a modern state.

Once he gets a request from the Maharaja of Bikaner for a donation for the Benaras Hindu University, without thinking twice he orders the sanction of Rs. 1 lakh! Sounds incredible,.

As India celebrates 50 years of the 1965 Indo-Pak war, Mohd Safiullah recalled that 5,000-kg gold worth Rs 3.50 crore donated by the Nizam in response to an appeal from the then prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was the single-largest contribution to the National Defence of the Government of India
Osmania University remains the Nizam’s biggest contribution to education. Another noteworthy aspect of his rule was communal harmony.