INDIA: Nizam's Azam and Moazzam

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Perpetually pinched for money, kept close under their father's thumb are the two oldest sons of the "Richest Man in the World," His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad. To a sporting acquaintance at Gleneagles, Scotland, last summer the Crown Prince of Hyderabad stated his views on marriage thus: "I like horses. They are more dependable than women. If a horse throws you it will stand by until you get on your feet."

Nevertheless Crown Prince Azam Jah obeyed his father's orders to marry last week, and so did Prince Moazzam Jah. Proceeding to Nice, France, these drab brothers were caparisoned with Oriental pomp, garlanded with flowers, buckled with jeweled swords and conducted by a suitably gorgeous retinue to the villa of His Holiness the politically deposed Caliph of Islam, goat-bearded Abdul Medjid Effendi, 63, still spiritually potent.

His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad was not present, it being an old Hyderabad tradition that "the Sovereign is too precious to his people ever to leave India." Actually the stingy Nizam, said to possess a miser's horde of $500,000,000 in gold apart from other wealth totaling $2,000,000,000, is not exactly his people's joy, much less that of his ministers. One of these harassed statesmen, when asked, "Why do you always arrive at the Palace in a Ford?" replied, "I am afraid that His Exalted Highness might consider my Rolls Royce a present to himself." By this and other means the Nizam has acquired 400 motor cars. His favorite Rolls Royce and his private railway car are both covered with thin strips of ivory, not paint. Both have solid gold hardware. Last week the earthy Nizam bought spiritual kudos for a thumping big price which he paid for the marriage of his sons at Nice.

How much is the beauteous daughter of a deposed Caliph worth? How much for his cousin who is also the great granddaughter of the late Turkish ex-Sultan Murad V? Right up to the moment when the double marriage contract was signed in Caliph Abdul Medjid's villa last week, furiously polite Oriental haggling continued over the terms:

1) His Exalted Highness, who has paid His Holiness a subsidy of $1,500 per month for years, will henceforth pay the old man $2,000 a month until his death.

2) The Caliph's daughter receives $200,000 and his cousin $75,000, both brides securing the concession that in case of termination of the marriage by death of the husband or divorce, the widow or divorcee will receive absolute possession of the full dower sum.