'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎316] (361/714)

PERSIA
vases, a case containing photographs of the English Royal Family
dating from the Shah's first visit in 1873, specimens'of filagree
work, and a number of objects in ivory and bone, ranging from
the most delicate Chinese workmanship to a collection of six
penny toothbrushes (classification, with a vengeance!). From the
walls depend a number of mediocre or execrable oil paintings, and
large panels of glazed tile-work, representing different scenes in
the life of the present sovereign. The three finest jewels
possessed by the Shah are said to be a huge uncut ruby, once the
property of Aurungzebe, which shimmers at the top of what is
called the Kaianian crown; a large diamond, set in a ring, which
was sent by George IV. as a present to Fath Ali Shah, and was
said by the gossips to have opened at once the gates of the capital
and the heart of the monarch ; and beyond all the Daria-i-Nnr,
or Sea of Light, the sister diamond to the Kuh-i-Nur (Kohinoor),
or Mountain of Light, which is the property of the British Crown.
Both jewels are said to have descended from Timur to Mohammed
Shah, the puppet whom Nadir spared at Delhi, but whom he
considerately relieved of all his chief valuables, including these
diamonds and the Peacock Throne. Upon Nadir's death, the
Kuh-i-Nur went with Ahmed Shah Durani into Afghanistan,
and descended to Shah Shuja, from whom it was taken by Runjit
Singh, the Lion of the Punjab, whence it passed by conquest into
the possession of the English Crown. The Daria-i-Nur remained
in Persia, and has been worn by its successive sovereigns. Fath
Ali Shah immortalised his own vanity at the same time that he con
siderably lowered the value of the stone, by causing to be scratched
upon it his own name. 1 He was in the habit of wearing it in one
of the hazvhands or armlets which he bore upon State occasions,
between the shoulder and elbow; but it is also sometimes worn
in a belt, and in other settings. I asked to see this jewel, but
it was shut up in an iron box that lay upon the seat of the
elevated throne : and it appeared that in the absence either of
the key or of the Grand Vizier, I think the latter, it could not be
shown.
Such, as well as I can remember them with the assistance of
I have read in different works that the stone was valued at 200,000/., and
also that its value was depreciated to the extent of 1,000,000/. by the act of Fath
Ali Shah ; statements from which it is difficult to strike out a mean of truth. It
weighs 186 carats.