Hyderabad [1] is the capital of Andhra Pradesh in Southern India, located on the banks of the Musi River and on the Deccan Plateau. Hyderabad and Secunderabad are "twin cities" near Hussain Sagar Lake (also known as Tank Bund in local parlance) but both cities have grown so much that now they have become one big metropolis. The city and district of Hyderabad are coterminous. Hyderabad district is entirely contained within the Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh. Many of the suburbs of Hyderabad were recently merged into the city, now called Greater Hyderabad.
A city rich with history and tradition, Hyderabad now competes with Bangalore, Chennai for the crown of India's IT capital; Microsoft, Google and Oracle have their India headquarters here.
The "old city" that was once the seat of the Nizam, the ruler of the largest and the most opulent "princely state", and the twin city of Secunderabad where the British maintained a cantonment to keep the army within striking distance of the Nizam can be seen only if you take the time out to see them.
Hyderabad's many epithets include the City of Pearls, the City of Nawabs, the Biryani City and, because of its high-tech draw, Cyberabad.
In 1463 Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk established the fortress of Golconda about 8 km to the west of Hyderabad’s present day old city. He had quelled rebellion in the Telangana region and was appointed the subedar, or administrator of the region as a result. By 1518, he had become independent from the Bahmani sultan, declared himself the Sultan under the name of Quli Qutb Shah and established the Qutb Shahi dynasty. In 1589, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, a grandson of Quli Qutb Shah, made the decision to move his capital from the Golconda fort to the present day location of Hyderabad due to water shortages at the old location. In 1591, he ordered the construction of the Charminar, reportedly in gratitude to Allah for cutting short a plague epidemic before it could do too much damage.
The name "Hyderabad" reportedly had its origins in an affair between Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah and a local Telugu courtesan named Bhagmati. He named the city Bhagyanagar after her, and after she converted to Islam and took on the name of "Hyder Mahal", he named the city Hyderabad. Hyderabad was built on a grid plan with help from Iranian architects. French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier favorably compared Hyderabad to Orleans.
The Qutb Shahi dynasty lasted till 1687, when the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb defeated the sultanate and took over Hyderabad. He appointed his governor as ruler of the region and granted him the title of Nizam-ul-Mulk. However, Mughal rule was short-lived and in 1724, the Nizam Asaf Jah I gained independence from a declining Mughal empire. Legend has it that while on a hunting expedition, he met a holy man who offered him some kulchas and asked him to eat as much as he could. Asaf Jah ate only seven, and the holy man prophesied that his dynasty would last for seven generations. Sure enough, the seventh ruler in the dynasty was the last. In honour of the legend, the fla
g of the Nizams featured a kulcha.
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