Koh-i-noor The history of the world's most infamous diamond

William Dalrymple

Book - 2017

"The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, arguably the most celebrated jewel in the world....Using original eyewitness accounts and chronicles never before translated into English, Dalrymple and Anand trace the true history of the diamond and disperse the myths and fantastic tales that have long surrounded this awe-inspiring jewel. The resulting history of south and central Asia tells a true tale of greed, conquest, murder, torture, colonialism, and appropriation that shaped a continent and the Koh-i-Noor itself."--From dust jacket.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Bloomsbury USA 2017.
Language
English
Main Author
William Dalrymple (author)
Other Authors
Anita Anand (author)
Edition
First U.S. edition
Item Description
"First published in 2016 in India by Juggernaut Books, New Delhi. First published in Great Britain in 2017."--Title page verso.
Physical Description
vi, 335 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, genealogical table : 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-318) and index.
ISBN
9781635570762
  • Map
  • Introduction
  • Part 1. The Jewel in the Throne
  • 1. The Indian Prehistory of the Koh-i-Noor
  • 2. The Mughals and the Koh-i-Noor
  • 3. Nader Shah: The Koh-i-Noor Goes to Iran
  • 4. The Durranis: The Koh-i-Noor in Afghanistan
  • 5. Ranjit Singh: The Koh-i-Noor in Lahore
  • Part 2. The Jewel in the Crown
  • 6. City of Ash
  • 7. The Boy King
  • 8. Passage to England
  • 9. The Great Exhibition
  • 10. The First Cut
  • 11. Queen Victoria's 'Loyal Subject'
  • 12. The Jewel and the Crown
  • 13. 'We Must Take Back the Koh-i-Noor'
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Acknowledgements
  • Index
Review by New York Times Review

THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851 was intended by its patron, Prince Albert, to showcase Britain's place as the workshop of the world. Yet the star attraction of the event was nota product of Victorian scientific know-how but a diamond imbued with such mythic power that "long queues snaked through the Crystal Palace to see this celebrated imperial trophy locked away" in a specially designed glass case enclosed in a metal cage. This diamond was the Koh-i-Noor, or, in Persian, "Mountain of Light." But the crowds were disappointed. The uncut diamond, though massive, did not sparkle sufficiently. After the exhibition, Albert, who did not like irregularity, sent the gem to a jeweler. The diamond that now sparkles in the queen mother's crown is almost half the size of the original, but, as William Dalrymple and Anita Anand reveal in their lapidary book, its symbolic heft is as potent as ever. At least three countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan and India - lay claim to its ownership, but for now it twinkles in the Tower of London underneath the curious gaze of tourists moving past on a specially designed conveyor belt. (To prevent crowding, a move Prince Albert would have approved.) Indian diamonds (until the 18 th century all diamonds came from the subcontinent, "except a seam of black diamond crystals found in the mountains of Borneo") are not mined but found in the alluvial soil of the riverbeds. The Koh-i-Noor isn't the biggest diamond to have been found, but it is the most famous. The book opens with the early history of the uncut diamond and tries to disentangle its provenance from the web of sinister myth that surrounds it (myth Wilkie Collins used in his 1868 novel, "The Moonstone"). In its first known appearance, the Koh-i-Noor adorned the famous Peacock Throne of the Mughal emperor in Delhi, but it was plundered by a Persian warlord named Nader Shah. The jewel did not bring its new owner happiness. Convinced that his son was trying to kill him, Nader ordered him to be blinded and his eyes displayed on a platter. A hundred years later, the diamond was the proudest possession of Rânjit Singh, the Sikh warrior who dominated the Punjab in the early half of the 19 th century. But when he died, the British swooped in and in 1849 his youngest son, 10-year-old Duleep Singh, was forced to sign a paper ceding his possessions, including the Koh-i-Noor, to the East India Company. The diamond was sent to Queen Victoria by Lord Dalhousie, India's governor general, who declared that "the Koh-iNoor has become in the lapse of ages a sort of historical emblem of conquest in India. It has now found its proper resting place." But rumors that the diamond brought bad luck to whoever touched it were fueled as the ship carrying it back to London was battered by freakish storms and its passengers stricken with cholera. On the day it arrived in London, Victoria was hit on the head with a cane by a deranged former army officer. The real casualty, however, was the diamond's last owner, Duleep Singh. Separated from his mother, who was imprisoned for refusing to accept British sovereignty, he converted to Christianity and was brought to England, where he became a favorite of Victoria's. She commissioned Franz Xaver Winterhalter, the Mario Testino of the 19th century, to paint the young man in his traditional costume. In the finished portrait, he stands draped in pearls with a diamond aigrette twinkling from his turban, every inch the maharajah - except, of course, for the Koh-iNoor. Victoria, who felt a little uneasy about the way the diamond had come into her possession (though not so uneasy that she refused it), had the gem brought from the tower and asked Duleep Singh, as she put it in his outstretched hand, "if he thought it improved, and if he would have recognized it again?" "There was a passion of repressed emotion in his face," one observer wrote, "evident I think to Her Majesty, who watched him with sympathy not unmixed with anxiety." But the orphaned, dispossessed teenager found dignity in humiliation. Giving the diamond back to the Queen, he declared, "It is to me, Ma'am, the greatest pleasure thus to have the opportunity, as a loyal subject, of myself tendering to my Sovereign - the Kohi-Noor." Duleep Singh would never touch the diamond again. As he grew older, the enormity of the wrongs that had been done to him overpowered his desire to please. He spent the rest of his life trying to obtain some restitution and return to his homeland. His efforts were unsuccessful and he died penniless in a Paris hotel in 1893. In theory, the next time the Koh-i-Noor will appear in public will be at the coronation of the future King Charles III, where it will be worn by his consort. Given its troubled history, perhaps the wisest course would be to give it back to one of the many governments that claim it before it can wreak disaster on the House of Windsor. This diamond is not a girl's best friend. The diamond, imbued with mythic power, sits in the Tower of London, where tourists can gaze at it. DAISY GOODWIN'S most recent book is the novel "Victoria."

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [December 3, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review

Locked within the Tower of London, on display for millions of visitors seeing the Crown Jewels, is one of history's most famous diamonds, Koh-I-Noor. This large diamond from the Indian subcontinent became the property of Queen Victoria in 1849 when 10-year-old maharaja Duleep Singh surrendered it to the East India Company. With the transfer, Singh lost his symbol of power, and the British Empire cemented its control over all of India. Unsurprisingly, India now wants the diamond back, as do Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, whose rulers at one time either wore or sat below Koh-I-Noor. The first part of this new history revises the somewhat fuzzy provenance of the jewel, for which many people died. The second recounts Great Britain's acquiring, displaying, and protecting of the diamond, including the story of Prince Albert's controversial recutting of the stone. Though both parts read quickly, many readers will find the second, with its account of British royalty, more interesting. For pleasure reading.--Roche, Rick Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

British historians Dalrymple (Return of a King) and Anand (Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary) trace the complicated, bloody, conflict-laden history of the Koh-I-Noor diamond in this winning account, following the diamond's chain of ownership through the centuries. Drawing together firsthand accounts and historical documents, the authors attempt to nail down the famous diamond's origins, starting with rumors and legends dating back to the 16th century. The gem is invariably linked to conquest, repeatedly passing hands from one ruler and country to another: from India's Mughal dynasty to Nader Shah of Iran to Ahmad Khan Abdali of Afghanistan, then to the Sikhs and finally into the hands of the British Empire, where it remains today. This book is equally about those who have coveted and possessed the diamond as it is about the legendary stone; dynasties rise and fall, and rumors of a curse may be well-earned: "Its owners have variously been blinded, slow-poisoned, tortured to death, burned in oil, threatened with drowning, crowned with molten lead, assassinated by their own family and bodyguards, or have lost their kingdoms and died in penury." It's an eye-opening, informative, and entertainingly lurid narrative; the authors virtually revel in visceral details while highlighting the colonialism and appropriation so entwined with the diamond's history. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The tale of a diamond that became a coveted prize during centuries of political turmoil.The history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond is a narrative of greed, war, and barbaric cruelty. Dalrymple (Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, 2013, etc.) and Anand (Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, 2015) divide their chronology, with Dalrymple covering the gem's history from its mysterious origins in antiquity, when it was apparently removed from the eye of an idol in southern India, through medieval times, devastating conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries, and ending in 1839, when India's ruler, and the gem's owner, Ranjit Singh, died. Anand picks up the story with Britain's increasing domination of India, the handing over of the diamond by Singh's son to the East India Company, its perilous transit to Queen Victoria, and its fate up to the present. The diamond was large but not the largest in the coffers of Asian rulers: an inch and a half long, nearly an inch wide, and shaped like an egg. It became a symbol of power, worn on ceremonial occasions, strapped to the bicep of whoever possessed it; the gem was coveted despite its reputation of having "dark powers." As Dalrymple writes, "few possessors of the Koh-i-Noor have led happy lives"surely an understatement. "Its owners," he acknowledges, "have variously been blinded, slow-poisoned, tortured to death, burned in oil, threatened with drowning, crowned with molten lead, assassinated by their own family and bodyguards, or have lost their kingdoms and died in penury." The ship transporting the diamond to England was beset by cholera and a vicious storm. Although many who saw it described its amazing shine, viewers in England were disappointed when it was displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Prince Albert contrived a new display case but eventually decided to have it cut. The result was a brilliant diamond half its original size. Currently, India, Pakistan, and the Taliban are zealously pressing for its return, which England staunchly refuses. A lively, well-researched history of lust for wealth and power. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.