The Kohinoor, Persian for ‘Mountain of Light’, is a large, colourless diamond that was found near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, possibly in the 13th century.
It weighed 793 carats (158.6 g) uncut and was first owned by the Kakatiya dynasty. The stone changed hands several times between various feuding factions in South Asia over the next few hundred years, before ending up in the possession of Queen Victoria after the British conquest of the Punjab in 1849.
The first valuation of the Kohinoor is given in the legend that one of Shah of Persia Nader Shah’s consorts apparently said in 1739 that “if a strong man were to throw four stones, one north, one south, one east, one west, and a fifth stone up into the air, and if the space between them were to be filled with gold, all would not equal the value of the Kohinoor”.
As the diamond’s history involves a great deal of fighting between men, the Kohinoor acquired a reputation within the British royal family for bringing bad luck to any man who wears it. Since arriving in the country, it has only ever been worn by female members of the family. Today, the diamond is set at the front of the Queen Mother’s Crown, part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, and is seen by millions of visitors to the Tower of London each year.
The governments of India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all tried to claim ownership of the diamond and demanded its return at various points in recent decades.
