Mir Barakat Ali Khan
Asaf Jah VIII
Mukarram Jah with his younger brotherMuffakham Jah
8thNizam of Hyderabad (titular)
Reign	24 February 1967 – 5 November 1971 (pretender 1971–2023)
Coronation	6 April 1967
Predecessor	Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII
Successor	Position abolished Azmet Jah (pretender)
Born	(1933-10-06)6 October 1933 Hilafet Palace,Nice,France
Died	15 January 2023(2023-01-15) (aged 89) Istanbul,Turkey
Burial	18 January 2023 Makkah Masjid,Hyderabad,Telangana, India
Spouse	Princess Esra Birgin (1959–1974; divorced) Aysha Simmons (1979–1989; widowed) Manolya Onur (1992–1997; divorced) Jameela Boularous (co-wife) (since 1992) Princess Ayesha Orchedi (co-wife) (since 1994)
Issue	Azmet Jah, Crown Prince of Hyderabad Princess Shehryar Prince Alexander Azam Khan Price Mohammad Amzad Hussain Khan Prince Mohammad Umar Khan Princess Nilufer Princess Zairin
House	House of Asaf Jah
Father	Azam Jah
Mother	Dürrüşehvar Sultan
Religion	Sunni Islam

Nizam Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqi Mukarram Jah, Asaf Jah VIII (6 October 1933 – 15 January 2023), less formally known asMukarram Jah, was thetitularNizam of Hyderabad between 1967 and 1971.^[1] He was the head of theHouse of Asaf Jah until he died in 2023.

Born as the eldest son ofAzam Jah andDürrüşehvar Sultan, he was named successor to the title ofNizam of Hyderabad by his grandfatherMir Osman Ali Khan. Upon Osman's death in 1967, he became the titular Nizam. He lost his titles and theprivy purses in 1971 when the 26th Amendment to the Indian constitution was passed.

Jah subsequently moved to Australia, where he stayed at theMurchison House Station. While the prince remained in Australia, his palaces in Hyderabad were encroached upon and fell into disrepair. Numerous divorce settlements and failed business ventures led to the loss of the majority of his fortune. In 1996, he moved to Turkey where he remained until he died in 2023. Jah was buried in Hyderabad.

Jah chaired theH.E.H. The Nizam's Charitable Trust and Mukarram Jah Trust for Education & Learning (MJTEL) Mukarram Jah High School.^[2]

Mukarram Jah was born toAzam Jah, the son and heir ofOsman Ali Khan, the last reigning Nizam of Hyderabad state, by his wifeDürrüşehvar Sultan, daughter of the lastCaliph of theOttoman dynasty,Abdulmejid II.^[3] His younger brother isMuffakham Jah.^[4][5]

Jah was educated inIndia atthe Doon School inDehradun and inEngland atHarrow andPeterhouse, Cambridge. He also studied at theLondon School of Economics and at theRoyal Military Academy Sandhurst.^[6]

Jah stayed atTeen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi for a while and briefly served as an honorary aide-de-camp ofJawaharlal Nehru.^[7] He stated in 2010 that Nehru had wanted him to become his personal envoy or the Indian ambassador to aMuslim country.^[8]

He became the titular Nizam of Hyderabad after the death of his grandfather in 1967.

In 1972, he visited Australia^[9] and came across theMurchison House Station,^[10] a pastoral property of 350,000 acres on the west coast, near Kalbarri. He bought the farm and permanently moved to Australia.^[11] He also purchased Havelock House,^[12] a mansion inPerth.

In 1996, he sold the farm and moved toTurkey shortly after.^[13]

His two main palaces in Hyderabad,Chowmahalla andFalaknuma, 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 theTaj Group, after some ten years of renovations.^[14]

Like his grandfather, 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 $US 2 billion.^[15][16]

Jah died on 15 January 2023, at the age of 89.^[17] Per Jah's wishes, his funeral took place inHyderabad which was the former capital ofHyderabad State and of theNizam of Hyderabad, on 18 January 2023.

His remains werelaid in state at theChowmahalla Palace, where family members and government officials paid their respects.^[18] In the evening of 18 January, he was buried at theMecca Masjid.^[19]

Mukarram Jah married five times. His first wife was a Turkish noblewoman,Esra Birgin (b. 1936), and they married in 1959.^[1][20] Jah left his Hyderabad palace for asheep station in theAustralian outback and divorced his wife, who did not want to move with him.^[21] In 1979, he married a formerair hostess and employee of theBBC, Helen Simmons (b. 1949 – d. 1989);^[22][23] she converted to Islam and changed her name to Aysha. After her death, he marriedManolya Onur (b. 1954 – d. 2017), a formerMiss Turkey in 1992, and divorced her after a five-year marriage in 1997.^[21][22][24]

He married Jameela Boularous (b. 1972), from Morocco, in 1992.^[25] In 1994, he married^[26] Princess Ayesha Orchedi (b. 1959), who is Turkish.^[27]

By Esra Birgin, Mukarram Jah had one son and one daughter:

• Walashan Nawab Sahibzada Mir Azmat Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafendi Bahadur (b. 1960), also known as Azmat Jah, married in 1994 to Princess Begum Sahiba Zainab Naz Jah (née Zeynep Naz Guvendiren) and has one son, has worked as a cameraman.^[21][28]
  • Murad Jah
• Sahibzadi Shehkyar Unisa Begum (b. 1964), unmarried and without issue^[29]

By Helen Simmons, he had two sons:

• Walashan Nawab Sahibzada Mir Alexander Azam Khan Siddiqi Bayafendi Bahadur (b. 1979)^[29]
• Walashan Nawab Sahibzada Mir Mohammad Umar Khan Siddiqi Bayafendi Bahadur (1984-2004) deceased due to drug overdose^[29]

By Manolya Onur he had a daughter:

• Sahebzadi Nilufer Unisa Begum/Nilufer Elif Jah (b. 1992)^[22]

By Jameela Boularous he had a daughter:

• Sahebzadi Zairin Unisa Begum (b. 1994)

His Exalted 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 andBerar.

Military titles

HonoraryLieutenant-General

The palaces he owned:

• Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad.
• Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad.
• Nazribagh Palace, Hyderabad.
• Naukhanda Palace, Aurangabad.
• Chiraan Palace, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.
• Purani Haveli Hyderabad (Mukarram Jah Trust for Education and Learning).

NawabNajaf Ali Khan, another grandson of 7th Nizam, met the Police Commissioner of Hyderabad and submitted a complaint along with supporting documents alleging that Prince Mukarram Jah, his ex-wifePrincess Esra (who also holds the General Power of Attorney (GPA) of Prince Mukarram Jah), his sonPrince Azmat Jah and his brother PrinceMuffakham Jah had used false documents in the UK High Court to lay claim over the £35 million Nizam’s Fund lying in NatWest Bank there.^[30]

• H.E.H. the Nizam's Charitable Trust
• Mir Osman Ali Khan
• Mir Najaf Ali Khan - cousin of Mukarram Jah
• Kingdom of Hyderabad

• 1933 births
• 2023 deaths
• The Doon School alumni
• Asaf Jahi dynasty
• Ottoman dynasty
• Hyderabadi Muslims
• People educated at Harrow School
• Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge

• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2023
• Use British English from December 2014
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020