It was founded by Shaykh al-Islam Imam Muhammad Anwarullah Khan Farooqi, honorifically known as Fadilat Jung (the title was bestowed upon him by the Nizam), in Hyderabad in 1876.
Over the last 134 years the Jamia has preserved the understanding of Islam and its sciences by the means of unbroken chains of Islamic authorization, viz, the Ijazah and the Isnad, which go back fourteen centuries to tie the institution and its scholars to Muhammad.