Hyder Ali or Haidar 'Ali (c. 1722 - 1782), was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Hyder Ali was a Shia Muslim soldier-adventurer, who, followed by his son Tipu Sultan, became one of the most formidable Asiatic rivals the British had ever encountered in India. He was the great-grandson of an Islamic fakir from Gulbarga, Deccan. His father was a "naik" or chief constable at Budikota, near Kolar in present-day Karnataka. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Hyder Ali. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyder_Ali
