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Founder of Hyderabad remembered on his 400th death anniversary

By Mohd Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,

Hyderabad: Hardly any one in Hyderabad might have remembered Quli Qutub Shah, the Qutub Shahi king – founder of Hyderabad, on his 400th death anniversary. He died at the age of 49, on 11th January1612 AD. His grave has inscriptions in ‘Naksh’ script of the Persian language according to which his date of demise as per the Islamic calendar is 17th Zul Qa’eda, year 1020 AH. The tourists, who visited the Qutub Shahi tomb, Wednesday, too might be unaware of this fact.

On the day, a few officials from the department of culture, archaeology and museums assembled at the tomb and offered floral tributes to him, then ‘Fateha’ was recited and a green ‘chader’ was laid on the grave.

By around evening Gazal singer Khan Ather sang a famous Munajaat, written by Quli Qutub Shah. He had written this Munajaat, after laying foundation of this city “farkhunde buniyad”; the starting verses of Munajaat are ‘mera shahr logon se mamoor kar — rakhyia joon tun darya mein min ya sami’ which means ‘oh lord fill my city with people as you have filled the river with fish’. It seems his Munajaat was accepted by the god, as He made Hyderabad a city of eight million souls.

Mohd Quli Qutub Shah ruled Hyderabad for 31 years. He was ascended to the throne in 1580 at the age of 15. His rule is considered – ‘the golden period of Qutub Shahi dynasty’. He modelled Hyderabad on the lines of the then legendary city of Esfahan, Persia.

Apart from being a good administrator, Sultan Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah was a scholar in Arabic and Persian. He wrote poems in both Urdu and Persian. His poetry has been compiled into a dewan or volume entitled “Kulliyat-e-Quli Qutub Shah.” Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah had the distinction of being the first Saheb-e-dewan Urdu poet and is credited for introducing a new sensibility into prevailing genres of Persian/Urdu poetry. It is said that the Urdu language acquired a literary status due to his contributions.