Viqar-ul-Umra

Sir Viqar ul-Umara, Iqtidar ul-Mulk, Iqbal ud-Dowla, Secundar Jung, Nawab Muhammad Fazl-ud-din Khan Bahadur KCIE (13 August 1856 – 15 February 1902), was the Prime Minister of Hyderabad State from 1893 to 1901, and also served as the Amir-e-Paigah from 1881 to 1902.

Another ancestor Muhammad Abu’l Khair Khan was a mansabdar during Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's reign.

The education department, the engineering school, the law classes, the legislative Council and the Asafia Library were opened under his prime-ministership.

[citation needed] He was the fifth Amir of a noble family, the Paigahs, and was the maternal grandson of Asaf Jah III.

[citation needed] Viqar-ul-Umra commissioned the Spanish Mosque (original name: Jama Masjid Aiwan-e-Begumpet) at Begumpet, Hyderabad in 1887.

Later on this palace was allegedly gifted to the Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan under political pressure.

Notable dignitaries to stay in this palace include Czar Nicholas II, George V, Queen Mary, Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump.

In this beautiful town with a mini hill station of Ananthgiri hills, he constructed the Sultan Manzil for his son Nawab Sultan-Ul-Mulk, post-office, police station, Hospital, Sanitarium, Vikarabad Bazar, Kotpally dam, Vikarabad lake and a hunting lodges imported from London in 1882.

In 1878, Viqar-ul-Umra married Munirunnisa Begum, the daughter of Nawab Hamza Ali Khan Bahadur.

Although Viqar-ul-Umra's previous marriages were arranged, he fell in love with Dr. Gulbai Viccajee, a Hyderabadi physician.

[15] Viqar-ul-Umra died while hunting at Yalghadap - Khanapur (in present-day Nizamabad district in Telangana) on 15 February 1902.

Viqar ul-Umara in buggy (c. 1900)
Tomb of Sir Vicar ul-Umra in Hyderabad