Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond

The Kohinoor began as an Indian stone and ended up in the British Crown Jewels, and William Dalrymple and Anita Anand follow every stage of that passage. The account moves from the diamond's origins in India through Mughal courts and Persian hands and on to its arrival in Britain, drawing on sources not previously translated along with contemporary testimony. What emerges is less the biography of a gem than a study of how an object becomes a token of conquest, and why arguments about imperial plunder and cultural restitution still attach to it. What the research covers: • The diamond's Indian origins and its movement between ruling powers • Its passage through Mughal and Persian rule and into the British Crown Jewels • Untranslated source material and firsthand accounts used by the authors • The continuing argument about colonial loot and who should hold the stone Written by Anita Anand and William Dalrymple for readers of Indian history, imperial history and narrative non-fiction, available from Boipoka.