Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond

by William Dalrymple, Anita Anand

Overview

'Riveting. This highly readable and entertaining book ... finally sets the record straight on the history of the Koh-i-Noor' Tarquin Hall, Sunday Times
'Dynamic, original and supremely readable' Maya Jasanoff, Guardian

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world.

On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old maharaja of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over great swathes of the richest country in India in a formal Act of Submission to a private corporation, the East India Company. He was also compelled to hand over to the British monarch, Queen Victoria, perhaps the single most valuable object on the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.

The history of the Koh-i-Noor may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi bazaars, but it was to become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology that has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation told through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting: in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which was deemed too contentious to be used by Camilla, the Queen Consort, in King Charles's coronation.

Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408888827
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	01/17/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	345,746
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

William Dalrymple wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was just twenty-two. Since then, he has had seven more books published and won numerous awards for his writing, including the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Duff Cooper Memorial Award, the Hemingway Prize and the Ryszard Kapuscinski Award for Literary Reportage. He lives with his wife and three children on a farm outside Delhi.

Anita Anand has been a radio and television journalist for over twenty years. On BBC television she has presented, among other shows, Daily Politics, The Heaven and Earth Show and Newsnight. She is currently the presenter of Any Answers on BBC Radio 4. Her first book, Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, received to widespread acclaim. She lives in West London.

Table of Contents

Map ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Jewel in the Throne

1 The Indian Prehistory of the Koh-i-Noor 19

2 The Mughals and the Koh-i-Noor 35

3 Nader Shah: The Koh-i-Noor Goes to Iran 63

4 The Durranis: The Koh-i-Noor in Afghanistan 93

5 Ranjit Singh: The Koh-i-Noor in Lahore 119

Part 2 The Jewel in the Crown

6 City of Ash 139

7 The Boy King 163

8 Passage to England 195

9 The Great Exhibition 219

10 The First Cut 229

11 Queen Victoria's 'Loyal Subject' 243

12 The Jewel and the Crown 249

13 'We Must Take Back the Koh-i-Noor' 269

Notes 285

Bibliography 303

Acknowledgements 319

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

Extraordinary. William Dalrymple and Anita Anand have found previously ignored and untranslated Persian and Afghan sources to give us fresh information” —Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times

“Riveting. Dalrymple and Anand present as evocative a rendering as the most enthralling bazaar storyteller while providing an astute and empathetic study of the historical landscape through which the diamond has made its troubled way … This highly readable and entertaining book ... finally sets the record straight on the history of the Koh-i-Noor” —Tarquin Hall, Sunday Times

“Dalrymple and Anand's tale is a writer's gift” —Robert Leigh-Pemberton, Daily Telegraph

“The history of the many who have coveted the diamond is long and involved, full of wonder and awe, treachery and bloodshed” —Observer

“Dalrymple tracks its tortuous journey across the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan to its arrival in the Punjabi treasury; Anand tells the subsequent story of British ownership. Their two narratives are neatly spliced and stylistically harmonious *****” —Matthew Dennison, Mail on Sunday

“[Dalrymple and Anand] have a real story to tell … for anyone with a taste for that classic blend of blood and bling, for “oceans of pearls and gold” and hecatombs of severed heads, for monstrous heaps of eyeballs – 20,000 of them – and precious stones “in quantities that beggar all description” this is an oriental Games of Thrones – Dalrymple's own reference – in spades” —David Crane, Spectator

“Meticulously researched and brilliantly written ... In fewer than 300 quick-reading pages, Dalrymple and Anand bust myth after myth” —Jon Wilson, BBC History Magazine

“Dalrymple tells this complicated story with verve and admirable brevity, drawing on a wide range of literature and memoirs. He paints a picture in which elegance and refinement are married to treachery and hideous brutality … This is a book which anyone interested in 19th century India and Indio-British relations will want to read” —Allan Massie, Scotsman

“Gruesome and ceaselessly dramatic” —Daily Telegraph

“For all that the Koh-i-Noor may be a doubtful best friend, there is no doubting the fascination of its story, told so engagingly here” —John Ure, Country Life

“Koh-i-Noor offers memorable tales of Indian courtly intrigue and violence, and explores the shifting fortunes of South Asian dynasties, the consolidation of British power in the subcontinent, and the British monarchy during and after Queen Victoria's reign” —Times Literary Supplement

“Dalrymple and Anand bring every stage of the Koh-i-Noor's turbulent past to life. It is an utterly fascinating story, revealing the nature of power through the history of one of its most potent symbols” —Lucy Moore, Literary Review

“In this vivid history of one of the world's most celebrated gemstones, the Indian diamond known as the Koh-i-Noor, Anita Anand and William Dalrymple put an inventive twist on the old maxim. “Follow the diamond,” they realise, and it can lead into a dynamic, original and supremely readable history of empires” —Maya Jasanoff, Guardian

“The fascinating story of this enormous jewel, currently kept in the Tower of London, is told in a compelling new book by Radio 4's Anita Anand (Any Answers) and historian William Dalrymple … The book comes out on June 15 and I can't wait to get my hands on it” —Richard and Judy, Daily Express

“William Dalrymple is to non-fiction what JK Rowling is to fiction ... This joint project with Anita Anand is bound to fly off the shelves as quickly as readers can devour it” —Bookseller

From the Publisher

07/03/2017
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.)

Publishers Weekly

2017-06-05
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.

Kirkus Reviews