NIZAM'S DOMINIONS, an extensive territory in the interior of Southern India, lying to the n.w. of the presidency of Madras, in lat. 15° 10' to 21° 42' n., and long. 74°40' to 81' :32' east. Length from s.w. to n.e, 480 in. • extreme breadth, 340 miles. Area, 90,000 sq.m., and population estimated at 9,000,000. The surface is a slightly-elevated table land. The principal rivers are the Godavari. (Godavery), with its tributariesthe Dudhna. Manjera, and Pranhita; and the Kistna (Krishna), with its tributaries the Bimah and Tungabhadro. The soil is naturally very fertile, but poorly cultivated; yet, wherever it receives moderate attention, it yields harvests all the year round. The products arc rice, wheat, maize, mustard, castor-oil, sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, fruits (including grapes and melons), and all kinds of kitchen vegetables. The are extensive, and sheep and horned cattle are numerous. Marsh and jungle, however, occupy a great space, and originate fevers, agues, diseases of the spleen, etc., though the climate is quite healthy where these do not abound. The mean temperature of the capital, Hyderabad, in January is 74° 30', and in May 93°. The inhabitants manufacture for home use woolen and cotton fabrics, and export silk, dressed hides, dye-stuffs, gums, and resins. Good military roads traverse the territory. The revenue of the nizam is reckoned at
£1,550,000 vearly. The ruler is a Mohammedan, but his subjects are mostly Hindus.
In 1687 'the territory, now known as the Nizam's Dominions, became a province of the Mogul empire; but in 1.719' the governor or• viceroy.of the Deccan, Azof Jah, made himself independent, and took the title of nizamul-mulk (regulator of the state. After his death, in 1748, two claimants appeared for the throne, his son Nazir Jung, and his grandson Mirzapha Jung. The cause of the former was espoused by the East India company, and that of the latter by a body of French adventurers under gen. Dupleix. Then followed a period of strife and anarchy. In 1761 nizam Ali obtained the supreme power, and after some vacillation signed a treaty of alliance with the English in 1768. He aided them in the war with Tippoo, sultan of Mysore, and at the termination of that war, in 1799, a new treaty was formed, by which, in return for certain territorial conces sions, the East India company bound itself to maintain a subsidiary force of 8,000 men for the defense of the nizam's dominions. The nizam remained faithful to the British during the mutiny of 1857-58. The territory is frequently called Hyderabad or Haidara bad. A British resident advises the nizam.