Koh-i-Nur. La storia del diamante più famigerato del mondo

Among the most fascinating stories of all time, a place undoubtedly belongs to the Koh-i-Noor, the diamond whose value was once estimated at two and a half days of food for the entire world. This portentous gem has been contested over the centuries by an impressive number of kings, conquerors, princes, raiders, thieves, and emperors, whose gruesome deaths fueled its reputation as a cursed stone: victims were blinded, poisoned, tortured, burned in boiling oil, crowned with molten lead, or murdered by their own family members.

In rewriting this history, William Dalrymple and Anita Anand rescue it from the mists of myth and meticulously reconstruct it from original sources - Persian, Afghan, Urdu, some translated for the first time - offering us a book that is as rigorous as it is compelling. They show us how the curse is nothing supernatural, but rather the concrete manifestation of the greed and murderous fury that this priceless jewel has historically incited in all who craved it. When the Koh-i-Noor found its final home in England, it was followed by its last Indian owner, Duleep Singh, who was born the sovereign of Indias most powerful kingdom and died, abandoned by all, in a Paris hotel, while the gem he had once proudly worn was displayed on Queen Victorias crown.

Author: William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is a British historian and writer based in Delhi. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has won numerous awards for his deeply researched and engagingly written books on Indian history.