HYDERABAD: A poem at a Shia shrine in the Old City acknowledges the Christmas spirit. At the Aza Khana-e-Zehra, an Ashoorkhana (house of mourning), dating back to the Nizam era, hangs a frame with a poem written in praise of Jesus Christ.
The poem, “Naved Masih”, in Persian was penned by Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam. Its English translation was done by Sir Nizamath Jung — political secretary and first secretary of the city improvement board.
The translation goes: What was Jesus’ mission, Osman? Ask them whom He came to guide! Gave His life for their redemption, for His flock he gladly died!
The poem is one of the many poems gifted to Nizam. In fact, the Persian piece found its way to Aza Khana Zehra.
Syed Abbas Moosvi, caretaker of Badshahi Ashoorkhana, who brought the literary piece to light, said that the poem has been adorning the walls of the ashoorkhana for five decades.
Dr Mohammed Safiullah, a historian, said that the Nizam respected all communities equally.
“In fact, he had visited the St. Jospeh’s Cathedral along with his family had attended the midnight mass,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
The seventh Nizam had attended the midnight mass during Christmas in 1950 along with 60 courtiers and all of them were dressed in suits. He had gifted a clock, a European oil painting of blessed mother and Christ as a child, and chandeliers in 1953 to the cathedral, said historian M.A. Qayyum.
