KOH-I-NOOR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 April 1927, Page 11

KOH-I-NOOR

♦ GREAT GEMS TRAGIC HISTORY

tragic history of the brightest ■*" gem in the British Crown, the Koh-i-noor, was mentioned in the English press recently. The diamond successively passed into the possession of the six great Mogul Emperors, but, in 1739, Xadir Kuli. from Afghanistan, invaded India and wrung from the Emperor all the contents of his treasury. One thing only was missing, and could not be found; this was the Koh-i-noor. At last it was reported to Nadir that the Emperor had concealed the diamond inside his turban. Nadir accordingly summoned a great durbar, in which he reinstated the Emperor on his throne, at the same time insisting as a mark of friendship upon exchanging head-dresses. Unable to resist the demand, Mahonimed Shah was forced to hand over his own turban, and received in exchange the victor’s sheep-skin hat. The exchange having been effected, Nadir hastily dismissed the durbar and retired to his own quarters, where, to his intense delight, he, having unrolled the Emperor’s turban, discovered the diamond which he sought, and which he at once christened the Koh-i-noor, or, Mountain of Light. 1 On Nadir’s death, the Koh-i-notr passed into the hands of his youngest i son, Shah Rokh. The new shah was soon deposed by Aga Mohammed, who, having deprived Shah Rokh of his sigh, ■confined him a priosner at Meshed. The ; most appalling tortures were inflicted on the luckless prisoner in the endeav-

our to coni pel him to hand over the Koh-i-noor. Finally, to his rescue Mine Ahmed Shah, who had seized the sceptre of Afghanistan on Nadir’s death, and who now defeated and slew Agn Mohammed. and reinstated the blind Shah Jtokh on his throne. To show his gratitude to his deliverer, Shah Rokh handed over the Koh-i----r.cor. From Ahmed Shall the diamond descended to his eldest son Taimur, and from him to his son Shah Zaman. The latter was seized, deposed and blinded by his own brother Shall Shuja. Later the gem was accidentally discovered buried in the plaster of Shah Zaman’s prison walls. Shah Shuja in turn was dethroned by another brother, and sent into exile. Even then the stone’s tragic influence had not lost its spell. One owner after another was slain by jealous hands, and the murderer who gained the coveted prize soon himself paid the penalty of his treachery. A son poisoned iiis father; he himself was murdered on the day of the funeral; the widow was put to death in her bath ' by her slave girls; the instigator of j that crime was murdered in turn —all in order to gain the throne, or ’to secure possession of this wonderful stone, i So the tragic drama of the KOII-1-noor went on until the wars of the Sikhs and the British, when the diamond was Impounded to help in paying ; the expenses of the war, and in 18od ir was presented to Queen Victoria by the East India Company.