ABSTRACT
Arabic and Farsi are probably the first foreign languages to be taught in India in a systematic and structured way. Since early times the madrasa system was in operation to teach Arabic. Schools attached to mosques were set up to teach the language for the correct reading of the Koran and other religious texts. Although Persian had an edge over Arabic, the latter was diligently studied. The institutions created by the Asaf Jahi rulers such as Jamia, Nizamia and Osmania universities and Dairat-ul Maarif have produced generations of scholars who have done Hyderabad proud. The State of Hyderabad Deccan attracted scholars from all over India and abroad. Among the more prominent poets of Hyderabad, Agha Shustri was related to Salar Jung Turab Ali Khan. A learned scholar, he was appointed tutor to the seventh Nizam. The founder of Jamia Nizamia, Maulana Hafiz Anwarullah Khan Saheb, Sadrus Sudur, Fazilat Jung named the Jamia after the medieval madrasa of Baghdad: the Nizamia.
