Hyderabad’s connection with both the Persian and Arab worlds is well-known. In fact, Barkas in the city is considered as a ‘mini Yemen’ because of the Arab soldiers who came to work under the Nizams of Hyderabad.

However, many don’t know that Hyderabad’s ties to Yemen during the Nizam or Asaf Jahi period was very strong. So much so that part of present-day Yemen under the Al-Qaiti family was essentially considered as an extension of the Hyderabad princely state.

Host Yunus Lasania who’s writing an oral history account of Operation Polo (the annexation of Hyderabad to India in 1948) speaks with Sam Dalrymple (who is also working on a book which looks at ‘five partitions’) about this deep connection between Hyderabad and Yemen.

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