The Koh-i-noor Diamond by Iradj Amini

Author:Iradj Amini [Amini, Iradj]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mobilism
Publisher: Roli Books Pvt. Ltd
Published: 2013-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

KOH-I-NOOR

1

Aurangzeb’s death was the beginning of the end of the Mughal empire. None of his successors, a series of weak, indolent kings, could match his stature. An Indian author, Muni Lal, has very aptly described them as the ‘Mini Mughals’. They were mere puppets who occupied the centre stage for a brief spell only to fall into oblivion, blinded, assassinated or incarcerated. Power belonged to omnipotent coteries of ministers who took advantage of the prevailing anarchy to feather their own political and material nests at the expense of the people and the empire.

During this entire period Babur’s diamond remained locked in the imperial treasury at the Red Fort, though a nineteenth century author claims that it was set in the eye of one of the peacocks which decorated the famous Mughal throne. We have thus no account of the period to tell us what became of it, and must move on to the morning of 22 September 1719, when the inhabitants of Delhi woke to the beating of drums, announcing the accession of a new Emperor, Mohammed Shah, the twelfth Mughal ruler, and in the twelve years since Aurangzeb’s death, the sixth ‘Emperor’ to be crowned.

The new ruler was barely seventeen years old. He was handsome, affable, intelligent and, above all, clear-sighted. His first concern, after coming to the throne, was to avoid the fate of his predecessors. So, handing over the reins of power to his advisors before being compelled to do so, he sank into a state of utter debauchery, and has been described as a man ‘who was never without a mistress in his arms nor a cup in his hand’ earning the sobriquet ‘Rangila’ – literally ‘colourful’ and meaning ‘a debauch’. He ruled in this manner for twenty-eight years.

It is hardly surprising then, that the Rajputs Marathas, Jats and Sikhs, who had been wronged for so long by the harshness of Islam, should seize the opportunity to rebel against the central government.

While the Mughal empire was sinking inexorably into a state of decadence, its rival Persia was like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes. Invaded, occupied and plundered in 1722 by the Afghan tribe of the Ghilzais, it would recover its past glory due to the providential arrival on the scene of Nadir Shah Afshar.

Few destinies compare with Nadir’s. A humble shepherd’s son, in the space of thirteen years he would raise Persia to the zenith of her power, conquer India, take away her fabulous treasures, and rename the Mughal diamond he captured, the Koh-i-noor. From this time the gem ceased to be an elusive legend and became a tangible part of history. Nadir’s parents belonged to a branch of the nomadic tribe of Afshars, actually Turks from Azerbaijan who had settled since 1502 in Khorasan. Every autumn the tribe would migrate towards their winter pastures, situated to the north of the Allah-o-Akbar mountain range at the border between modern Iran and Turkmenistan. It was during one such journey, on 22 November 1688, that the future sovereign of Persia was born.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.