This paper looks at the history of the Ni‘matullāhiyya in the Deccan region of India and at the ni‘matullāhī centre which is established in Hyderabad by ‘Imād al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Ḥusaynī (m. 1100/1689), a Shi’a of Iraqi origin who was initiated at Bidar. The development of this branch and of its new line of masters represents the main element of renewal of the order in the Deccan during the early modern period. At Hyderabad the ni‘matullāhī did not receive the support of the Shiite dynasty of the Quṭb Šāh, in spite of the relation of its founder with the ni‘matullāhī of Iran. They enjoyed later the devotion of several nobleman of the city during the period of the Niẓām, such as Ma‘ṣūm ‘Alī Šāh Dakanī (m. 1211/1797 ca), who was sent to restore the order in Iran. His master Šāh ‘Alī Riżā (m. 1215/1801) is considered the architect of the plan aiming to restore the order in Iran, however the biographies of the Deccan Sufis give us a portrait of this personage that is quite different from the one given by the Iranian sources.