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Research for this article was made possible by a COR Junior Faculty Research Grant from the University of California, Berkeley. I would like to warmly thank Clare Talwalker, Farina Mir, Kavita Datla, the late John Richards, Richard Eaton as well as the participants in two conferences, 'New Elites, Old Regimes' (held at Yale University in April 2006) and 'Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History' (held at Duke University in September 2006), for their comments and encouragement. Thanks also go out to V.K. Bawa, Omar Khalidi, and the staff of the British Library (but especially Leena Mitford, Ursula Sims-Williams and Muhammad Isa Waley) for their help in tracking down archival materials. I am especially grateful to Ben Cohen for generously sharing an invaluable copy of Maasir-i Nizami that he acquired from the Andhra Pradesh State Archives (Hyderabad). Any mistakes are mine alone.
I.
Introduction
In May 1748, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah arrived in the central Indian city of Burhanpur. He was 77 years old and exhausted after undertaking an extensive tour of his dominion. While in Burhanpur, the Nizam caught a cold that caused his health to swiftly deteriorate. Sensing death upon him, the Nizam called a gathering of close confidants and family. The atmosphere was intimate and sad. Among other matters, the Nizam dictated his last testament (wasiyyatnama). Spanning 17 clauses, this testament was intended to provide insights into a lifetime of almost unparalleled success in statecraft and a template of how to govern Hyderabad, the nascent state founded by him in the early 1720s in south-central India. Although the tone and content of the will suggest the Nizam is worried about the future of Hyderabad, he also seems concerned to shape his own historical legacy. There is little doubt that the Nizam wished to be remembered as the most successful politician, general and administrator among the post-Mughal rulers. The will is occasionally pontificatory and self-aggrandizing, yet there can be no disagreeing with the Nizam's own conclusion that he had lived a blessed life.1 Here, after all, was a man who had not only survived, but also thrived amidst the uncertainty accompanying the collapse of the Mughal Empire during the first decades of the eighteenth century.
Using the career of Nizam-ul-Mulk...