Zubaida Yazdani

Zubaida Yazdani (27 April 1916 – 11 June 1996) was an Indian historian specialising in the history of the Deccan Plateau and the Nizam State of Hyderabad, in India.

Biography Yazdani was born in Hyderabad, India on 27 April 1916. Yazdani was one of the first Asian women to enter Oxford University. She authored two books and numerous scholarly articles about the history of India. Her book Hyderabad During the Residency of Henry Russell, 1811–1820 was a scholarly exposition of the Indian Subsidiary Alliance system. A second book, The Seventh Nizam: The Fallen Empire, was a memoir of the last Nizam of Hyderabad and also a study of the constitutional and political complexities which surrounded the relations of the Indian states with the British Raj. Her scholarship explores the topics based on the painstaking use of original records, documents that had been overlooked by previous investigators.

Personal life Yazdani was the oldest daughter of historian and archaeologist Ghulam Yazdani. Yazdani was married to Mir Yaseen Ali Khan, who was an Urdu poet. Yazdani was one of the first Asian women to enter Oxford University. She taught for many years while also conducting and publishing research.

She returned to Britain in 1963 and attended postgraduate classes at London University School of Oriental and African Studies. She later transferred to Oxford University, where she completed her postgraduate studies at St. Hilda's College.

From 1967 to 1969 she was senior reader at the women's college, Osmania University, and was also its acting principal. Then she became reader in history at the Arts college, Osmania University, and finally head of its history department.

Scholarly and literary work Yazdani published her first book "Hyderabad during the residency of Henry Russell 1811 – 1820". "About the founding of the college for women; she felt the need for such an Institution as there were not adequate places and opportunities for women whom she believed strongly in. When she made up her mind about something she felt strongly about, there was no stopping her and there was no word like NO in her dictionary of life. In the days of old it was not the IN thing for women to go to rich or powerful men's houses or see them personally on their own so I, being a very young teenage son used to accompany her on these missions of gathering funds for the cause from powerful bankers, heads of companies, directors, etc. As the occasion demanded her charisma and powers of persuasion at convincing the great and the good were like magic, and they were like putty in her hands and it was extraordinary to watch".

Yazdani also established the Hyderabad School for Languages and Sciences in Hackney in London. The school was started in February 1981 because she had been approached by parents of children from Hyderabad and Pakistan to teach Urdu. She and her husband, Mir Yaseen Ali Khan, initially taught the classes, but after a few months the Inner London Education Authority visited the school and awarded a grant. After that, the school was able to employ more teachers. The school taught primary, junior and secondary pupils in Urdu up the O and A level. The school also taught English, Arabic, and Science subjects. The school closed some years after Zubaida Yazdani's death.

Yazdani was also an office bearer in various Urdu and history associations and published research in academic journals

Books Hyderabad during the Residency of Henry Russell 1811 – 1820 Seventh Nizam, The Fallen Empire