The last Nizam of Hyderabad inherited one of the world's largest fortunes and died in Turkey after losing most of it

Mukarram Jah was born in France in 1933 to Azam Jah, heir of the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, and Princess Durru Shehvar, daughter of the last Ottoman caliph. In 1954 his grandfather named him successor in place of his father, reportedly because he was dissatisfied with his own son. He became the eighth Nizam on 6 April 1967 and inherited one of the largest fortunes in the world. He and his grandfather were described as India's richest men until the 1980s. In 1971 India's 26th Amendment ended his title and privy purse^†. In 1972 he bought Murchison House Station, a sheep property in Western Australia^†. His first wife, a Turkish noblewoman, divorced him after refusing to leave the Hyderabad palace for the outback. He married five times. A 1990s divorce settlement and failed ventures took much of his wealth. His finances collapsed in 1996, and he sold the farm. A reporter found him in 2005 in a two-bedroom flat in Antalya. He died in Istanbul in January 2023, aged 89. On 18 January he was buried with state honours in the Asaf Jahi family tombs in Hyderabad. Chowmahalla Palace is a museum, and Falaknuma Palace is a hotel run by Taj.