The San Francisco call., 1909-01-02

Portuguese and; The king of Col
.conda. Ten years. afterward Taver-
.nier saw: 1t at the court of Aurung Zeb,
a %ear before the death of the unhappy
Shah Jehan. 1t had brought him misery
and II. vahished fo1 nwith from history,
for il. was probably carried off by
Persian invaders.
:: Even more. terrible is the history OF
tie s'Koh-i-nurs" which is first men
TONED ;in the memoirs of the Sultan
Baber the founder Of the Mogul line,
of. whom Shah Jehan was the fifth
descendant. ON May 4. 1926, the Sultan
.Baber writes. that this gem had been
brought: him {y his son.. who took it
after battle from the family OF the
rajah of Ifwalior. This family had ac
.nuired. It. through.the Sultan Ala-ed-din
(a.name' with the true flavor Of the
Arabian NightS) who ruled. in Hindu
stan from i 4Ss to 1921 apd who got 1t
lby means that had better not be exam
.:iRedl from the rajah. of Malwa, in
whose. family; it had been an imme-
mortal heirloom, tracing back TO re
mote ancestors common to- the Gwaior
+ dynasty: This :stone also was in the
treasury: Of Shah Jehan.. and though
'Aurung Zeb had taken the Great
Mogul" he leftshis dethroned rival the
:'l<oh-i-nur, .. and. with the MOguls 1t
remained till Nadir Shah invaded India,
in the reign Of Moha mined Shah in 1888.
Mohammed. kept 1t in his turban, so
when the willy conqueror asked to ex-
change tufbans as a pledge Of peace
the 'sMolintafn' of Light went with the
royal headgear and after Nadir Shah's
death passed to- his son, Shah Rokh.
Now Rokh loved the stone above all
his possessions and even suffered the
.tortures: of being blinded rather than
part with it: When he was finally
oyerthrowh, for i'll luck followed the
stof1e while it was in India. he took it
with him to Meshd. and though Aga
Mohammed got the great ruby (once in
Aurung 'zeb's CROWN out of him, no
tortures could extract the koh-i-nur.
In 1851, however, Rolh- gave it. as a
pledge OF alliance. to Ahmed Shah, the
founder of the Durani Afghan empire.
and at once the evil destiny of the gem
set to work again. Ahmed's heir, Tai
MUIR moved from Kandahar to Kabul,
and died in 1873, leaving the stone to
his. son. Shah Zaman, who was blinded
by. his brother, Shah Shuja ul Mulk.
The diamond was found hidden beneath
. the plaster. in a wall, and Shuja wore it
when Elphinstone came up as British
envoy to Peshawur. But Shuja in turn
had to submit;to destiny. He was
blinded by. another brother, Shah Nah
mud. who fled with the fatal stone to
Runjit Singh. the Lion of the Punjab,'
who kept both brothers prisoners at
Lahore, knowing full well the treasure
they had with them. The faithful Be
gum gave up all their other gems but
refused to reveal the hiding place of the
Koh-i-nur. At last, after every fair
and, unfair means had been tried, the
miserable ShuJa, who could not longer
see the diamond he boarded, it up
for $4,000 rupees on June l, 1913, and
Runjit wore it s bracelet until his
death in 1889.
Then the stone lay In the Lahore
treasury until the young Rajah Dhulip
Singh was recognized by the British
government. But the Sikhs rose in re-
volt, and in 1S49 the Punjab was an
Dexed and the East Indian company
took the treasure, stipulating that its
rarest gem should go to Queen Victoria
so Lord Dalhousie brought il to her In
June 1880, and it became the chief gem
in the crown of the Kaiser-i- Hind.