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of the high officials around him began to intrigue
in their own interest and this led to his downfall.
The Jacob diamond case in which the Nizam
himself had to give evidence, perhaps hastened
the catastrophe. The Minister lost his popularity
and came to incur the easily aroused suspicion of
his sensitive Master. A web of intrigue was
woven round him by designing people and he had
to vacate office in favour of his cousin, Nawab
Iqbal-ud-Dowlah, Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, in 1893 or
1894. He died in 1898, leaving an only son,
Nawab Moinuddin Khan, afterwards Nawab
Moin-ud-Dowlah.
Sir Viqar-ul-Umara
Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, the younger brother of
Nawab Khurshid Jah Shams-ul-Umara, was a
nobleman who represented a new type among the
nobility. A lover of things European, he preferred
to live after their style —in externals. A sportsman
by inclination and habit, he was fond of big game
shooting and sports and built for himself a shooting
box on the Ananthagiri Hill beyond Gangawaram,
which is now known as ' Vikarabad. ' He was
surrounded by a number of sporting men who had
once been connected with the Hyderabad Contin-
gent, and he kept a fine stud of horses and had a
polo team of his own. In the eighties of the last
century he began to build on the top of a hill beyond
Jahan Numa palatial villa which came to be known
as ' Falaknuma. ' He loved * the grand style '
and was heedless of expense. With such tastes,