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                                                                                   A 4OO-year-old bond 
                             As you drive towards Charminar from Nayapul Side, it is Difficult to think about any Iranian link to this city of cultural confluence. But if you take small detour before Charminar near Sehran restau­rant, cross the Burqa Street and ask for Irani Gulli, you will be in for a Surprise. In the single push-cart street by that name you will find two huge arched homes and inscriptions in Persian. It was in this street that sayyed  Reza's wife gave birth to Mir Abul  Qasim whom we know as Mir Alam . sayyed Reza was a mujtahid (religious cleric) from Shuster in Iran who came to Delhi to seek his fortune in Mughal empire sometime in late 1780s. It wasn’t one way street then, the doors of Shustar's oldest mosque were built with shisham wood brought from India. Sayyed Reza worked under the Mughal Prime Minister Safdar Jung before he wanted to return to Shushtar. He never did, as he was wooed by Nizam-ul-Mulk the father Of Nizam Ali Khan to stay back. He settled down in Irani gulli where other people of Iranian extraction lived. Mir Alam. now lies buried in Mir Momin ka Daira.
                         It was Mir Momin Istrabadi who should get the credit for leaving a permanent stamp of Iranian influence on Hyderabad. Mir Momin, a first genera­tion Iranian having migrated to Golconda in 1581, was the Prime Minister during the reign of Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah (1580-1612). It was Mir Momin who supervised the construction of A Hyderabad modeling it on lsfahan and called his labour of love Isfahan-I-Nou. But before Mir Momin could create his paradise on earth, Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah had the Purana Pul built in 1578 so that his son could cross Musi to meet his beloved. It was modeled on bridges then ill vogue in Iran (see Si-o-se-pol complet­ed in 1632 in Isfahan on the opposite page).
                         Back to Mir Momin, who drew the first draft of Hyderabad with Charminar as the architectural centre, at the instance of Md Quli Qutub Shah. Mir Momin was no Ordinary man having worked in Shah Tahmasb's court (of the Safawid dynasty) in Isfahan before getting disillusioned with court intrigues. A pious Alim (scholar and authority on Islamic learn­ing), Mir Momin beside being a Peshwa (the word of Persian etymology meant religious leader but later got modi­fied to mean political leader as well) tutored Sultan Quli Qutub Shah and when Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah died in 1611, Mir Momin rushed to the palace and announced that Sultan is the new king thus pre­empting another round of blood-letting 'and court intrigue, He had jagirs of villages which we now know as Saidabad, Meerpet, Jillalguda, Cherlapally and Malepally.
                         A few metres from the Golconda fort are a series of grand quadrangular struc­tures topped up by a rotund domes. If Mohammad Qutub Shah's tomb is the grandest with intricate stuc­co work, the founder of the dynasty Qutb-ul-Mulk has the simplest of tombs. Qutb­ul-Mulk can easily be called a soldier of for­tune who say his opportunity in Deccan. Packed off from a region which now encom­passes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan .by his grandfather Pir Quli who was worried about his safety, Qutb-ul-­Mulk saw his chance here, as he wrote the reason for not returning: "I have attained the age of twenty and feel that I have greater chance of rising here as it is bravery and power which are regarded as passport for favours."
                         Succeed he did. Creating a dynasty that ruled for nearly 200 years. He transformed a mud fortress of Kakatiya kings into an impregnable granite walled fortress. He cre­ated the administrative structure that out­lasted him, but more than that he created the basis of cultural co-existence. A Shia, who nominally owed allegiance to the Safawid dynasty of Persia, he created a cul­ture where two of high-ranking officials were Asva Rao and Rai Rao. A Telugu poem Sukasaptati written by Palavekari  Kadiripati talks about Hindu chiefs living if up during the Qutb-ul-Mulk's reign. They are depicted as wearing pearls, long caps and silk pyjamas. Qutb-ul-Mulk him self is depicted as wearing angavastram in a por­trait now preserved in Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris.
The inclusive cultural idiom is easily seen in Asur Khanas built during the Qutb Shahi period. The procession of alams was almost a throwback to animist tradition. Mir Abdul Lateef Shustari in Tuhfat al-Alam expresses his concern.
                         If the construction of Asur Khanas (mourning halls) evoked memories of Isfahan for those who emigrated from there, the solemn of grief Moharram would see people from all walks of life and religions joining in the grief. Throughout the period of Moharram free food was available at the Hussaini Alam shrine. According to legend, a Qutb Shahi queen's son was carried off by a mast elephant during the period. She vowed to feed the poor if her son was returned. Her son was returned and the free langar continued for nearly 200 years.