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Hyderabad's African Old Guard
Set in and around Hyderabad at the beginning of the nineteenth century, White Mughals tells the story of the improbably romantic love affair and marriage between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a rising star in the East India Company, and Khair-un-Nisa, a Hyderabadi princess. Pursuing Kirkpatrick's passionate affair through the archives across the continents, Dalrymple unveils a fascinating story of intrigue and love that breaches the conventional boundaries of empire. As Kirkpatrick gradually goes native (adopting local clothes) he becomes a secret agent working for his wife's royal family against the English, as he tries to balance the interests of both cultures.
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Jewels of the Nizam by Usha R. Bala Krishnan
This is the story of the incalculable wealth of the Asaf Jah dynasty. Wealth that has lain concealed in the darkness of a bank vault for over 50 years. It is the study and documentation of gemstones and jewels that few people have had the opportunity to see and handle. The collection of jewels of the Nizam's of Hyderabad is one of the finest in the world. In addition to turban ornaments, gem-set and enamelled necklaces, earrings, armbands, bracelets, belts and other items of jewellery, it includes twenty-two unset emeralds and the fabled 184.50 carat Jacob Diamond - a magnificent South African gem believed to have been used by the last Nizam as a paperweight! After the integration of Hyderabad state into the Union of India in 1950. Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan instituted a jewellery trust to which he assigned the most important items from the Hyderabad treasury, with the stipulation that they could only be sold after his death. In the nearly three decades since 1972 (when the collection was first offered to the government of India), the unfolding drama of the Nizam's jewels entailed court cases, tantrums, intrigue, conflicting decisions and colossal expenses. The Jewels of the Nizam's documents this unique group of jewels that give credence to legends, apocryphal tales and fading memories of a fabulously wealthy dynasty that ruled the Deccan for seven generations.