Some provinces declared virtual independence, including Hyderabad in the south, where Asaf Jah, Qamruddin’s predecessor as grand wazir, established himself as viceroy in 1725, starting a Sunni dynasty of the Nizams. In the east, Saadat Khan, the leader of the court’s Irani faction, inaugurated a Shia dynasty in Awadh, after being named viceroy there in 1722.
