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

By William Dalrymple and Anita Anand

'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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781408888858

William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and in 2002 was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. He wrote and presented the TV series ‘Stones of the Raj’ and ‘Indian Journeys’, which won BAFTA’s 2002 Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series. He and his wife, artist Olivia Fraser, have three children, and divide their time between London and Delhi.

Reviews for Koh-i-Noor

[jagbot-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i thought this would be a mere recounting of how the precious stone got into proud british hands. the fakeer purn puri's meeting with ahmad shah durrani, the maggots falling from his decaying nose into his food, the funeral of ranjith singh where the practice of satee reveals itself to the recounting austro-hungarian ambassador?, the entire life of duleep singh and the continuing farce of afghanistan, pakistan and india trying to get back the diamond from british hands were memorable :)

[prichardson_33 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I rattled through this book in no time at all which was a great pity as I enjoyed every page. A narrative history of one of history's most famous precious stones and which through this book you share in its journey through the rise and fall of empires, often violent changes of ownership and then into the possession of the British crown. Thoroughly enjoyable