Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond - William Dalrymple

Written by William Dalrymple
Read by Leighton Pugh
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
Release date: 06-15-17
Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world, from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling historians William Dalrymple and Anita Anand.

On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah 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 to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.

Under commission from the British East India Company, gossip from Delhi bazaars was woven into what would become the accepted history of the Koh-i-Noor. Now, for the first time, 150 years after it was written, this version is finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology which has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, conquest, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation through an impressive slice of South and Central Asian history. Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating.

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 Drawing together firsthand accounts and historical documents, the authors attempt to nail down the famous diamond’s origins, starting with rumors and legends dating back to the 16th century.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.

June 15, 2017
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 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.

Many books have been written about the diamond. Wilkie Collins may have used it as inspiration for The Moonstone.