The life,
chapter by chapter.

He was born Muhammad Bahadur Khan in 1905, in the princely State of Hyderabad, into the family of Nawab Naseeb Yawar Jung. Of Afghan descent, he grew up studious and gifted: a linguist, poet, essayist, and above all a speaker of rare power.

The title by which history knows him — Yar Jung — was conferred by the seventh Nizam himself, moved by the force of one of his speeches. The people gave him grander names still: Lisan-ul-Ummat, the Tongue of the Nation.

In 1931 he performed Hajj and travelled across the Middle East — witnessing a Muslim world in upheaval. He rose to lead the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, stood beside Jinnah, refused the office of Hyderabad's prime minister when it was offered to quiet him, and lost his hereditary title and jagir rather than his voice. He died in 1944, aged 39.