Mukarram Jah


Sahebzada Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqi Mukarram Jah Asaf Jah VIII , less formally known as Mukarram Jah, has been the titular Nizam of Hyderabad since the death of his grandfather in 1967.
He currently chairs the H.E.H. The Nizam's Charitable Trust and Mukarram Jah Trust for Education & Learning.

Biography

Mukarram Jah was born to Azam Jah, the son and heir of Osman Ali Khan, the last reigning Nizam of Hyderabad state, by his wife Princess Durru Shehvar, daughter of the last Caliph of the Ottoman Empire, ‘Abdu’l-Mijid II. Jah was educated in India at The Doon School, Dehradun where he finished most of his schooling. He then completed the rest of his education in Harrow, Peterhouse, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and Sandhurst.
Jah was a friend of India's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and stated in 2010 that Nehru had wanted him to become his personal envoy or the Indian ambassador to a Muslim country. His two main palaces in Hyderabad, Chowmahalla and Falaknuma, have been restored and opened to the public, the former as a museum showcasing the era of the Nizams and the latter as a luxury hotel. The Taj Falaknuma Palace Hotel opened in February 2010, having been leased to the Taj Group, after some ten years of renovations.
Like his father, Mukarram was the richest man in India until the 1980s. However, in the 1990s he lost some assets to divorce settlements. His net worth is nevertheless estimated at $US1 billion.

Marriages and issue

Mukarram Jah married five times. His first wife was a Turkish princess, Esra Birgin, and they married in 1959. Jah left his Hyderabad palace for a sheep station in the Australian outback and divorced his wife, who did not want to move with him. In 1979, he married a former air hostess and employee of the BBC, Helen Simmons ; she converted to Islam and changed her name to Aysha. After her death, he married Manolya Onur, a former Miss Turkey in 1992, and divorced her after a five-year marriage in 1997.
He married Jameela Boularous, from Morocco, in 1992. In 1994, he married Princess Ayesha Orchedi, who is Turkish.

Sons and daughters

By Esra Birgin, Mukarram Jah had one son and one daughter:
By Helen Simmons he had two sons:
By Manolya Onur he had a daughter:
By Jameela Boularous he had a daughter:
His Highness Prince Rustam-i-Dauran, Arustu-i-Zaman, Wal Mamaluk, Asaf Jah VIII, Muzaffar ul-Mamalik, Nizam ul-Mulk, Nizam ud-Daula, Nawab Mir Barakat 'Ali Khan Siddiqi Bahadur, Sipah Salar, Fath Jang, Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar.
;Military titles
Honorary Lieutenant-General

Palaces

The palaces he owns