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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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country
for upwards of a hundred years. In the battle in which Ibraham was
defeated, Bikeramjit was sent to hell. Bikeramjit's family and the
heads of his clan were at this moment in Agra. When Humayun arrived
(Humayun was Babel's son) Bikeramjit's people attempted to escape but
were taken by the parties which Humayun had placed upon watch, and put
in custody. Humayun did not permit them to be plundered. Of their own
free will they presented to Humayun a peshkash (present) consisting of
a quantity of jewels and precious stones. Among these was the famous
diamond which had been acquired by Sultan Ala-ed-Din. It is so
valuable that a judge of diamonds values it at half the daily expense
of the whole world. It is about eight mishkels. On my arrival Humayun
presented it to me as a peshkash and I gave it back to him as a present.
And
there you have the first written fact, so far as we know, about the
Koh-I-Noor, the Methuselah of all known diamonds, whose history dates
back, "authorities believe" at least five thousand years. Eventually it
came into the possession of one of the Rajahs of Malwai and remained
peacefully in his family for many generations until 1304 a.d. This
Sultan Ala-ed-Din, whom Baber meptions, had reigned some two hundred
years before Baber. He is credited with having taken the jewel in the
year 1304 horn the Ra/ah of Malwar, in whose family it had been for
generations without number, and now more than two hundred years
afterward it was again in the possession of a Ra/ah of Malwar.
But
from the time of Sultan Baber's account the diamond passed through the
long and powerful fine of Mogul emperors, including Akbar Shah, Shah
Jehan, and Jehangir. Always the symbol of power, the Koh-I-Noor was
coveted by sons and brothers of these emperors, in their many bloody
strifes for succession to the throne.
Finally, the Koh-I-Noor left India when the Nadir Shah
(16)
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