179-616: The Koh-i-Noor ( Persian for 'Mountain of Light'; / ˌ k oʊ ɪ ˈ n ʊər / KOH -in- OOR ), also spelt Koh-e-Noor , Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur , is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing 105.6 carats (21.12 g). It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom . The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother . There are multiple conflicting legends on
358-574: A noyan of the Chagatai Khanate raided Punjab, advancing as far as Kasur . Alauddin's forces, led by Ulugh Khan, defeated the Mongols on 6 February 1298. According to Amir Khusrow , 20,000 Mongols were killed in the battle, and many more were killed in Delhi after being brought there as prisoners. In 1298–99, another Mongol army (possibly Neguderi fugitives) invaded Sindh , and occupied
537-468: A puppet monarch . Alauddin's elder son Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah seized power shortly after his death. Contemporary chroniclers did not write much about Alauddin's childhood. According to the 16th/17th-century chronicler Haji-ud-Dabir, Alauddin was 34 years old when he started his march to Ranthambore (1300–1301). Assuming this is correct, Alauddin's birth can be dated to 1266–1267. His original name
716-655: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
895-453: A basis of the agrarian reforms introduced by the later rulers such as Sher Shah Suri and Akbar . However, his other regulations, including price control, were revoked by his son Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah a few months after his death. The countryside and agricultural production during Alauddin's time was controlled by the village headmen, the traditional Hindu authorities. He viewed their haughtiness and their direct and indirect resistance as
1074-592: A ceasefire between Sher Singh and the overthrown empress Chand Kaur . Gulab Singh had attempted to defend the widowed empress at her fort in Lahore, during two days of conflict and shelling by Sher Singh and his troops. Despite handing over the Koh-i-noor, Gulab Singh as a result of the ceasefire returned safely to Jammu with a wealth of gold and other jewels taken from the treasury. On 15 September 1843, both Sher Singh and prime minister Dhian Singh were assassinated in
1253-472: A coup led by Ajit Singh Sandhawalia . However, the next day in a counter coup led by Dhian's son Hira Singh the assassins were killed. Aged 24, Hira Singh succeeded his father as prime minister, and installed the five-year old Duleep Singh as emperor. The Koh-i-noor was now fastened to the arm of the child emperor in court at Lahore. Duleep Singh and his mother empress Jind Kaur , had till then resided in Jammu,
1432-671: A decisive victory against the Mongols near the Ravi riverbank , and later ransacked the Mongol territories in present-day Afghanistan . The military commanders that successfully led his army against the Mongols include Zafar Khan , Ulugh Khan , and Alauddin's slave-general Malik Kafur . Alauddin conquered the kingdoms of Gujarat (raided in 1299 and annexed in 1304), Jaisalmer (1299), Ranthambore (1301), Chittor (1303), Malwa (1305), Siwana (1308), and Jalore (1311). These victories ended several Rajput and other Hindu dynasties, including
1611-476: A decisive victory. The invaders ransacked Delhi and its neighbourhoods, but ultimately decided to retreat after being unable to breach Siri. The Mongol invasion of 1303 was one of the most serious invasions of India, and prompted Alauddin to take several steps to prevent its repeat. He strengthened the forts and the military presence along the Mongol routes to India. He also implemented a series of economic reforms to ensure sufficient revenue inflows for maintaining
1790-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
1969-496: A garden, Jalaluddin's daughter attacked Mahru out of jealousy. In response, Alauddin assaulted her. The incident was reported to Jalaluddin, but the Sultan did not take any action against Alauddin. Alauddin was not on good terms with his mother-in-law either, who wielded great influence over the Sultan. According to the 16th-century historian Firishta , she warned Jalaluddin that Alauddin was planning to set up an independent kingdom in
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#17327729390562148-505: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian
2327-582: A large tract of fertile land under the directly governed crown territory, by eliminating iqta's , land grants and vassals in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab region. He imposed a 50% kharaj tax on the agricultural produce in a substantial part of northern India: this was the maximum amount allowed by the Hanafi school of Islam, which was dominant in Delhi at that time. Alauddin Khalji's taxation system
2506-439: A letter of apology to the Sultan and expressed concern that his enemies may have poisoned Sultan's mind against him during his absence. He requested a letter of pardon signed by the Sultan, which the Sultan immediately despatched through messengers. At Kara, Jalaluddin's messengers learned of Alauddin's military strength and of his plans to dethrone the Sultan. However, Alauddin detained them and prevented them from communicating with
2685-676: A lifelong vassal of Alauddin. Meanwhile, a section of Alauddin's army had been besieging the fort of Siwana in Marwar region unsuccessfully for several years. In August–September 1308, Alauddin personally took charge of the siege operations in Siwana. The Delhi army conquered the fort in the Siege of Siwana , and the defending ruler Sitaladeva was killed in November 1308. The plunder obtained from Devagiri prompted Alauddin to plan an invasion of
2864-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
3043-533: A major argument broke out between his courtiers regarding the fate of Koh-i-Noor. Ranjit Singh himself was too weak to speak, and communicated using gestures. Bhai Gobind Ram, the head Brahmin of Ranjit Singh, insisted that the king had willed Koh-i-Noor and other jewels to the Jagannath Temple, Puri : the king apparently supported this claim through gestures, as recorded in his court chronicle Umdat ul-Tawarikh . However, treasurer Beli Ram insisted that it
3222-693: A march to Delhi, and ordered his officers to recruit as many soldiers as possible, without fitness tests or background checks . His objective was to cause a change in the general political opinion, by portraying himself as someone with huge public support. To portray himself as a generous king, he ordered 5 manns of gold pieces to be shot from a manjaniq ( catapult ) at a crowd in Kara. One section of his army, led by himself and Nusrat Khan , marched to Delhi via Badaun and Baran (modern Bulandshahr ). The other section, led by Zafar Khan , marched to Delhi via Koil (modern Aligarh ). As Alauddin marched to Delhi,
3401-421: A monarch, she was very arrogant and tried to dominate Alauddin. According to Haji-ud-Dabir, Alauddin married a second woman, named Mahru, who was the sister of Malik Sanjar alias Alp Khan . Malika-i-Jahan was greatly infuriated by her husband taking a second wife. According to Dabir, this was the main cause of the misunderstanding between Alauddin and his first wife. Once, while Alauddin and Mahru were together in
3580-536: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and
3759-460: A remote part of the country. She closely monitored Alauddin and encouraged her daughter's arrogant behavior toward him. In 1291, Alauddin played an important role in crushing a revolt by the governor of Kara Malik Chajju. Jalaluddin rewarded Alauddin by appointing him as the new governor of Kara in 1291. Malik Chajju's former Amirs (subordinate nobles) at Kara considered Jalaluddin as a weak and ineffective ruler and instigated Alauddin to usurp
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#17327729390563938-599: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are
4117-675: A specially dug tunnel under the walls of the castle. At this time Morshead and the Keeper of the Tower Armouries removed some of the larger stones, including the Koh-i-Noor, and wrapping them in cotton wool, inserted them in a glass preserving-jar, which was then placed in a biscuit tin; the thinking being that, unlike the bulkier crowns, this would allow their swift relocation if the German invasion occurred. The Koh-i-Noor has long been
4296-638: A strong army. In 1304, Alauddin appears to have ordered a second invasion of Gujarat , which resulted in the annexation of the Vaghela kingdom to the Delhi Sultanate. In 1305, he launched an invasion of Malwa in central India, which resulted in the defeat and death of the Paramara king Mahalakadeva . The Yajvapala dynasty , which ruled the region to the north-east of Malwa, also appears to have fallen to Alauddin's invasion. In December 1305,
4475-483: A strong man threw a stone in four cardinal directions and vertically, Koh-i-Noor would be worth more than the gold and precious stones filled in the space. Ranjit Singh grew paranoid about the Koh-i-Noor being stolen, because in the past, another valuable jewel had been stolen from him while he was intoxicated. He kept the diamond within a high-security facility at the Gobindgarh Fort when it was not in use. When
4654-536: A subject of diplomatic controversy, with India, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan all demanding its return from the UK at various points. The Government of India first demanded the return of the Koh-i-Noor as soon as independence was granted in 1947. A second request followed in 1953, the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . Each time, the British Government rejected the claims, saying that ownership
4833-502: A systematic looting of the wealth of the city and the treasury of the Mughal Empire. With nearly 10,000 wagons of loot, along with millions of rupees and an assortment of other historic jewels, Nader Shah also carried away the imperial Peacock Throne. Nader Shah's biographer, Muhammad Kazim Marvi, first recorded seeing the Koh-i-Noor in the 1740s on the head of one of the peacocks on the throne, along with other prominent gems such as
5012-538: A tributary of Alauddin. From Dwarasamudra, Malik Kafur marched to the Pandya kingdom, where he raided several towns reaching as far as Madurai . Both Vira and Sundara fled their headquarters, and thus, Kafur was unable to make them Alauddin's tributaries. Nevertheless, the Delhi army looted many treasures, elephants and horses. The Delhi chronicler Ziauddin Barani described this seizure of wealth from Dwarasamudra and
5191-664: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian
5370-628: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of
5549-850: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian
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5728-675: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting
5907-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of
6086-479: Is impossible to verify these details exactly about when or where it was found, and many competing theories exist as to its original owner. For some time it was alleged that while in the possession of Shah Jahan 's son Aurangzeb , the stone was cut by Hortense Borgia, a Venetian lapidarist , who reduced the weight of the large stone to 186 carats (37.2 g). For this carelessness, Borgia was reprimanded and fined 10,000 rupees . However according to recent research,
6265-460: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with
6444-475: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),
6623-585: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became
6802-495: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting
6981-491: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes
7160-506: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on
7339-582: The British Crown . Another suggestion is that the jewel be housed in a special museum at the Wagah border between India and Pakistan. However this suggestion does not cater to Afghan claims, nor the reality of current British possession. The British Government rejects these compromises, and has stated since the end of the British Raj that the status of the diamond is 'non-negotiable'. A rumor that
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7518-668: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of
7697-643: The Ganges river with a smaller body of around 1,000 soldiers. On 20 July 1296, Alauddin had Jalaluddin killed, after pretending to greet the Sultan, and declaring himself the new king. Jalaluddin's companions were also killed, while Ahmad Chap's army retreated to Delhi. Alauddin, known as Ali Gurshasp until his ascension in July 1296, was formally proclaimed as the new king with the title Alauddunya wad Din Muhammad Shah-us Sultan at Kara . Meanwhile,
7876-556: The Great Exhibition in London, but the lackluster cut failed to impress viewers. Prince Albert , husband of Queen Victoria, ordered it to be re-cut as an oval brilliant by Coster Diamonds . By modern standards, the culet (point at the bottom of a gemstone) is unusually broad, giving the impression of a black hole when the stone is viewed head-on; it is nevertheless regarded by gemologists as "full of life". Since arriving in
8055-541: The Kakatiya king Prataparudra , and the Hoysala king Ballala III to become Alauddin's tributaries . Kafur also raided the Pandya kingdom (1311), obtaining much treasure, elephants, and horses. During the last years of his life, Alauddin had an illness and relied on Malik Kafur to handle the administration. After his death in 1316, Malik Kafur appointed Shihabuddin , son of Alauddin and his Hindu wife Jhatyapali, as
8234-840: The Paramaras , the Vaghelas , the Chahamanas of Ranastambhapura and Jalore , the Rawal branch of the Guhilas , and possibly the Yajvapalas . His slave-general Malik Kafur led multiple campaigns to the south of the Vindhyas , obtaining a considerable amount of wealth from Devagiri (1308), Warangal (1310) and Dwarasamudra (1311). These victories forced the Yadava king Ramachandra ,
8413-660: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , said of returning the diamond, "If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty. I am afraid to say, it is going to have to stay put." On a subsequent visit in February 2013, he said, "They're not having that back." In April 2016, the Indian Culture Ministry stated it would make "all possible efforts" to arrange the return of
8592-674: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of
8771-535: The Taliban 's foreign affairs spokesman, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, said the Koh-i-Noor was the legitimate property of Afghanistan, and demanded for it to be handed over to the regime. "The history of the diamond shows it was taken from us (Afghanistan) to India, and from there to Britain. We have a much better claim than the Indians", he said. The Afghan claim derives from Shah Shuja Durrani's memoirs, which states he surrendered
8950-439: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of
9129-423: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian
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#17327729390569308-479: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
9487-400: The 1740s invasion of Northern India by Nader Shah . Marvi notes the Koh-i-Noor as one of many stones on the Mughal Peacock Throne that Nader looted from Delhi . The diamond then changed hands between various empires in south and west Asia, until being given to Queen Victoria after the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the British East India Company 's annexation of the Punjab in 1849, during
9666-572: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to
9845-439: The East India Company. The date had been chosen to coincide with the Company's 250th anniversary. Members of the public were given a chance to see the Koh-i-Noor when The Great Exhibition was staged at Hyde Park, London , in 1851. It represented the might of the British Empire and took pride of place in the eastern part of the central gallery. Its mysterious past and advertised value of £1–2 million drew large crowds. At first,
10024-452: The Jalore fort after defeating and killing Kanhadadeva. During the siege of Warangal, Malik Kafur had learned about the wealth of the Hoysala and Pandya kingdoms located further south. After returning to Delhi, he took Alauddin's permission to lead an expedition there. Kafur started his march from Delhi in November 1310, and crossed Deccan in early 1311, supported by Alauddin's tributaries Ramachandra and Prataparudra. At this time,
10203-496: The Kakatiya king Prataparudra agreed to become a tributary of Alauddin, and surrendered a large amount of wealth (possibly including the Koh-i-Noor diamond) to the invaders. Meanwhile, after conquering Siwana, Alauddin had ordered his generals to subjugate other parts of Marwar, before returning to Delhi. The raids of his generals in Marwar led to their confrontations with Kanhadadeva , the Chahamana ruler of Jalore . In 1311, Alauddin's general Malik Kamaluddin Gurg captured
10382-420: The Koh-i-Noor has 8 additional "star" facets around the culet , making a total of 66 facets. The great loss of weight was to some extent due to removal of several flaws, one especially big, which Voorzanger discovered. Although Prince Albert was dissatisfied with such a huge reduction, most experts agreed that Voorzanger had made the right decision and did the job with impeccable skill. When Queen Victoria showed
10561-454: The Koh-i-Noor is cursed may have originated with the Delhi Gazette ; it was soon repeated in The Illustrated London News , and Queen Victoria herself expressed concern about the curse. This led to a counter-rumor that the curse attached only to male rulers. The Koh-i-Noor was one of the inspirations for the eponymous gemstone in The Moonstone (1868), a 19th-century British epistolary novel by Wilkie Collins , generally considered to be
10740-426: The Koh-i-Noor to India. The then Solicitor General of India , Ranjit Kumar said, "It was given voluntarily by Ranjit Singh to the British as compensation for help in the Sikh Wars. The Koh-i-Noor is not a stolen object." In 1976, Pakistan asserted its ownership of the diamond, saying its return would be "a convincing demonstration of the spirit that moved Britain voluntarily to shed its imperial encumbrances and lead
10919-406: The Koh-i-Noor was set in the Crown of Queen Alexandra , the wife of Edward VII , that was used to crown her at their coronation in 1902. The diamond was transferred to the Crown of Queen Mary in 1911, and finally to Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1937. When the Queen Mother died in 2002, the crown was placed on top of her coffin for the lying-in-state and funeral. Queen Camilla
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#173277293905611098-428: The Lawrence family has it that before the voyage, John Lawrence left the jewel in his waistcoat pocket when it was sent to be laundered, and was most grateful when it was returned promptly by the valet who found it. On 1 February 1850, the jewel was sealed in a small iron safe inside a red dispatch box, both sealed with red tape and a wax seal and kept in a chest at Bombay Treasury awaiting a steamer ship from China. It
11277-436: The Maharajah of Lahore to the Queen of England [ sic ]. The lead signatory of the treaty for the by then eleven-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh was his commander-in-chief Tej Singh , a loyalist of Maharaja Gulab Singh who had previously been in possession of the Koh-i-Noor and gained Kashmir from the Sikh empire, via treaty with Britain, following the First Anglo-Sikh War . The Governor-General in charge of
11456-500: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it
11635-527: The Mongol territories located in present-day Afghanistan. Around 1308, Alauddin sent Malik Kafur to invade Devagiri , whose king Ramachandra had discontinued the tribute payments promised in 1296, and had granted asylum to the Vaghela king Karna at Baglana . Kafur was supported by Alauddin's Gujarat governor Alp Khan, whose forces invaded Baglana, and captured Karna's daughter Devaladevi (later married to Alauddin's son Khizr Khan). At Devagiri, Kafur achieved an easy victory, and Ramachandra agreed to become
11814-432: The Mongols invaded India again. Instead of attacking the heavily guarded city of Delhi, the invaders proceeded south-east to the Gangetic plains along the Himalayan foothills . Alauddin's 30,000-strong cavalry, led by Malik Nayak, defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Amroha . Many Mongols were taken captive and killed; the 16th-century historian Firishta claims that the heads ( sir ) of 8,000 Mongols were used to build
11993-429: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After
12172-432: The Pandya kingdom as the greatest one since the Muslim capture of Delhi. During this campaign, the Mongol general Abachi had conspired to ally with the Pandyas, and as a result, Alauddin ordered him to be executed in Delhi. This, combined with their general grievances against Alauddin, led to resentment among Mongols who had settled in India after converting to Islam. A section of Mongol leaders plotted to kill Alauddin, but
12351-421: The Pandya kingdom was reeling under a war of succession between the two brothers Vira and Sundara, and taking advantage of this, the Hoysala king Ballala had invaded the Pandyan territory. When Ballala learned about Kafur's march, he hurried back to his capital Dwarasamudra . However, he could not put up a strong resistance, and negotiated a truce after a short siege , agreeing to surrender his wealth and become
12530-459: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian
12709-425: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
12888-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
13067-886: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,
13246-484: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised
13425-588: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)
13604-462: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of
13783-553: The Siri Fort commissioned by Alauddin. In 1306, another Mongol army sent by Duwa advanced up to the Ravi River , ransacking the territories along the way. Alauddin's forces, led by Malik Kafur , decisively defeated the Mongols . Duwa died next year, and after that the Mongols did not launch any further expeditions to India during Alauddin's reign. On the contrary, Alauddin's Dipalpur governor Malik Tughluq regularly raided
13962-505: The Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin was appointed as Amir-i-Tuzuk (equivalent to Master of ceremonies ), while Almas Beg was given the post of Akhur-beg (equivalent to Master of the Horse ). Alauddin married Jalaluddin's daughter, Malika-i-Jahan , long before the Khalji revolution of 1290. The marriage, however, was not a happy one. Having suddenly become a princess after Jalaluddin's rise as
14141-531: The Sultan's desire to subjugate the Hindus by "depriving them of that wealth and property which fosters rebellion". According to historian Satish Chandra , Alauddin's reforms were based on his conception of fear and control as the basis of good government as well as his military ambitions: the bulk of the measures were designed to centralise power in his hands and to support a large military. Some of Alauddin's land reforms were continued by his successors, and formed
14320-512: The Sultan. Meanwhile, Alauddin's younger brother Almas Beg (later Ulugh Khan), who was married to a daughter of Jalaluddin, assured the Sultan of Alauddin's loyalty. He convinced Jalaluddin to visit Kara and meet Alauddin, saying that Alauddin would commit suicide out of guilt if the Sultan did not pardon him personally. A gullible Jalaluddin set out for Kara with his army. After reaching close to Kara, he directed Ahmad Chap to take his main army to Kara by land route, while he himself decided to cross
14499-460: The UK, it has only been worn by female members of the British royal family. It is said to bring bad luck if it is worn by a man. Victoria wore the stone in a brooch and a circlet . After she died in 1901, it was set in the Crown of Queen Alexandra . It was transferred to the Crown of Queen Mary in 1911, and to the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1937 for her coronation . Today,
14678-483: The United Kingdom to help defend against a possible invasion of Afghanistan by Russia. He was quickly overthrown, but fled with the diamond to Lahore (in modern Pakistan), where in one account, Ranjit Singh , founder of the Sikh Empire , in return for his hospitality, insisted upon the gem being given to him, and he took possession of it in 1813. Shah Shuja's memoirs dispute this, which claim Ranjit Singh extorted
14857-484: The Vaghela queen Kamala Devi and slave Malik Kafur , who later led Alauddin's southern campaigns. During the army's return journey to Delhi, some of its Mongol soldiers staged an unsuccessful mutiny near Jalore , after the generals forcibly tried to extract a share of loot ( khums ) from them. Alauddin's administration meted out brutal punishments to the mutineers' families in Delhi, including killings of children in front of their mothers. According to Ziauddin Barani ,
15036-521: The acquired loot to stage a successful revolt against Jalaluddin. After killing Jalaluddin, he consolidated his power in Delhi, and subjugated Jalaluddin's sons in Multan . Over the next few years, Alauddin successfully fended off the Mongol invasions from the Chagatai Khanate , at Jaran-Manjur (1297–1298), Sivistan (1298), Kili (1299), Delhi (1303), and Amroha (1305). In 1306, his forces achieved
15215-498: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before
15394-431: The areas east of the Ravi river . The region beyond Lahore suffered from Mongol raids and Khokhar rebellions. Multan was controlled by Jalaluddin's son Arkali, who harbored the fugitives from Delhi. In November 1296, Alauddin sent an army led by Ulugh Khan and Zafar Khan to conquer Multan . On his orders, Nusrat Khan arrested, blinded, and/or killed the surviving members of Jalaluddin's family. Shortly after
15573-405: The army had lost several men and its baggage. Neither this army, nor the reinforcements sent by Alauddin's provincial governors could enter the city because of the blockades set up by the Mongols. Under these difficult circumstances, Alauddin took shelter in a heavily guarded camp at the under-construction Siri Fort . The Mongols engaged his forces in some minor conflicts, but neither army achieved
15752-517: The authenticity of these legends. While the imperial armies were busy in Chittor and Warangal campaigns, the Mongols launched another invasion of Delhi around August 1303. Alauddin managed to reach Delhi before the invaders, but did not have enough time to prepare for a strong defence. Meanwhile, the Warangal campaign was unsuccessful (because of heavy rains according to Ziauddin Barani ), and
15931-434: The central authorities. Henceforth, "everybody was busy with earning a living so that nobody could even think of rebellion". He also ordered "to supply some rules and regulations for grinding down the Hindus, and for depriving them of that wealth and property which fosters rebellion. The Hindu was to be so reduced as to be unable to keep a horse to ride on, wear fine clothes, or to enjoy any luxuries of life." Alauddin brought
16110-674: The claims. In 2018, at the Supreme Court of India the Archeological Survey of India clarified that the diamond was surrendered to the British and "it (the diamond) was neither stolen nor forcibly taken away". Babur , the Turco-Mongol founder of the Mughal Empire , wrote about a "famous" diamond that weighed just over 187 old carats – approximately the size of the once 186-carat Koh-i-Noor. According to
16289-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being
16468-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by
16647-666: The company of Mr Onslow, the private secretary to the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the British East India Company, proceeded by train to East India House in the City of London and passed the diamond into the care of the chairman and deputy chairman of the East India Company. The Koh-i-Noor was formally presented to Queen Victoria on 3 July 1850 at Buckingham Palace by the deputy chairman of
16826-658: The conclusion of the Second Anglo-Sikh War , the Kingdom of Punjab was formally annexed to Company rule , and the Last Treaty of Lahore was signed, officially ceding the Koh-i-Noor to Queen Victoria and the Maharaja's other assets to the company. Article III of the treaty read: The gem called the Koh-i-Noor, which was taken from Shah Sooja-ool-moolk by Maharajah Ranjeet Singh, shall be surrendered by
17005-473: The conquest of Multan, Alauddin appointed Nusrat Khan as his wazir (prime minister). Having strengthened his control over Delhi, the Sultan started eliminating the officers that were not his own appointees. In 1297, the aristocrats ( maliks ), who had deserted Jalaluddin's family to join Alauddin, were arrested, blinded or killed. All their property, including the money earlier given to them by Alauddin,
17184-523: The consent of the government decided to have the diamond re-cut. For this task, he employed one of the largest and most famous Dutch diamond merchants, Mozes Coster . He sent to London one of his most experienced artisans, Levie Benjamin Voorzanger, and his assistants. On 17 July 1852, the cutting began at the factory of Garrard & Co . in Haymarket, using a steam-powered mill built specially for
17363-462: The conspiracy was discovered by Alauddin's agents. Alauddin then ordered a mass massacre of Mongols in his empire, which according to Barani, resulted in the death of 20,000 or 30,000 Mongols. Meanwhile, in Devagiri , after Ramachandra's death, his son tried to overthrow Alauddin's suzerainty. Malik Kafur invaded Devagiri again in 1313, defeated him, and became the governor of Devagiri. Alauddin
17542-486: The cut that the intermediaries received for collecting revenue. Alauddin's demand for tax proportional to land area meant that the rich and powerful villages with more land had to pay more taxes. He forced the rural chiefs to pay same taxes as the others, and banned them from imposing illegal taxes on the peasants. To prevent any rebellions, his administration deprived the rural chiefs of their wealth, horses and arms. By suppressing these chiefs, Alauddin projected himself as
17721-399: The diamond from him by having his son tortured in front of him. Ranjit Singh had the diamond examined by jewelers of Lahore for two days to ensure that Shuja had not tricked him. After the jewelers confirmed its genuineness, he donated 125,000 rupees to Shuja. Ranjit Singh then asked the principal jewelers of Amritsar to estimate the diamond's value; the jewelers declared that the value of
17900-581: The diamond is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London . The governments of India, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have all claimed ownership of the Koh-i-Noor, demanding its return ever since India gained independence from the British Empire in 1947. The British government insists the gem was obtained legally under the terms of the Last Treaty of Lahore in 1849 and has rejected
18079-464: The diamond to Ranjit Singh while Singh was having his son tortured in front of him, so he argued that the Maharajah of Lahore acquired the stone illegitimately. Because of the disputes over the diamond's rightful ownership, there have been various compromises suggested. These include dividing it into four, with a piece given to each of Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan, with the final piece retained by
18258-510: The diamond was "far beyond all computation". Ranjit Singh then affixed the diamond to the front of his turban, and paraded on an elephant to enable his subjects to see it. He used to wear it as an armlet during major festivals such as Diwali and Dusserah , and took it with him during travel. He would exhibit it to prominent visitors, especially British officers. One day, Ranjit Singh asked the diamond's former owners – Shuja and his wife Wafa Begum – to estimate its value. Wafa Begum replied that if
18437-678: The diamond was to be transported, it was placed in a pannier on a guarded camel; 39 other camels with identical panniers were included in the convoy; the diamond was always placed on the first camel immediately behind the guards, but great secrecy was maintained regarding which camel carried it. Only Ranjit Singh's treasurer Misr Beli Ram knew which camel carried the diamond. In June 1839, Ranjit Singh suffered his third stroke , and it became apparent that he would die soon. On his deathbed, he started giving away his valuable possessions to religious charities, and appointed his eldest son Kharak Singh as his successor. A day before his death, on 26 June 1839,
18616-594: The diary of Alauddin Khalji of the Khalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate , he acquired a large diamond when he invaded the kingdoms of southern India at the beginning of the 14th century and looted it from the Kakatiyas . It later passed on to succeeding dynasties of the sultanate, and Babur received the diamond in 1526 as a tribute for his conquest of Delhi and Agra at the Battle of Panipat . However, it
18795-652: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak
18974-683: The first full length detective novel in the English language. In his preface to the first edition of the book, Collins says that he based his eponymous "Moonstone" on the histories of two stones: the Orlov , a 189.62-carat (37.9 g) diamond in the Russian Imperial Sceptre, and the Koh-i-Noor. In the 1966 Penguin Books edition of The Moonstone , J. I. M. Stewart states that Collins used G. C. King 's The Natural History, Ancient and Modern, of Precious Stones ... (1865) to research
19153-555: The following phylogenetic classification: Alauddin Khalji Alauddin Khalji ( Persian : علاء الدین خلجی ; r. 1296–1316 ), born Ali Gurshasp , was a ruler from the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent . Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrative changes in India, related to revenues , price controls , and society . He also successfully fended off several Mongol invasions of India . Alauddin
19332-577: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to
19511-476: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like
19690-469: The fort of Sivistan . This time, Alauddin's general Zafar Khan defeated the invaders and recaptured the fort. In early 1299, Alauddin sent Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan to invade Gujarat , where the Vaghela king Karna offered a weak resistance. Alauddin's army plundered several towns including Somnath , where it desecrated the famous Hindu temple. The Delhi army also captured several people, including
19869-613: The general public. In the winter of 1302–1303, Alauddin dispatched an army to ransack the Kakatiya capital Warangal . Meanwhile, he himself led another army to conquer Chittor , the capital of the Guhila kingdom ruled by Ratnasimha . Alauddin captured Chittor after an eight-month long siege . According to his courtier Amir Khusrau, he ordered a massacre of 30,000 local Hindus after this conquest. Some later legends state that Alauddin invaded Chittor to capture Ratnasimha's beautiful queen Padmini , but most modern historians have rejected
20048-502: The great Timur Ruby and the Daria-i-Noor . It is alleged that Nader Shah exclaimed "Koh-i-Noor!" , Persian and Hindi-Urdu for "Mountain of Light", when he first obtained the famous stone. One of his consorts is even noted to have said, "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
20227-509: The head of Jalaluddin was paraded on a spear in his camp before being sent to Awadh . Over the next two days, Alauddin formed a provisional government at Kara. He promoted the existing Amirs to the rank of Maliks , and appointed his close friends as the new Amirs . At that time, there were heavy rains, and the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers were flooded. But Alauddin made preparations for
20406-854: The history of the Koh-i-Noor. Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It
20585-551: The information on the Yadava kingdom. A pleased Jalaluddin gave him the office of Ariz-i Mamalik (Minister of War), and also made him the governor of Awadh . In addition, the Sultan granted Alauddin's request to use the revenue surplus for hiring additional troops. After years of planning and preparation, Alauddin successfully raided Devagiri in 1296. He left Devagiri with a huge amount of wealth, including precious metals, jewels, silk products, elephants, horses, and slaves. When
20764-547: The invaders, he and other soldiers in his unit were killed in the battle. Qutlugh Khwaja was also seriously wounded, forcing the Mongols to retreat. Around the same time, Alauddin turned his attention towards the present-day state of Rajasthan to subdue the Rajput kingdoms for a secure base to Gujarat and Malwa and for further expeditions in the South. In 1299 CE, Alauddin besieged the fortress of Jaisalmer ruled by Bhatis at
20943-617: The job by Maudslay, Sons and Field . Supervised by Albert and the Duke of Wellington , and the technical direction of the Queen's mineralogist, James Tennant , the cutting took 38 days, cost Albert £8,000, and reduced the diamond from 186 old carats (191 modern carats or 38.2 g) to its current weight 105.6 carats (21.12 g). The stone now measures 3.6 cm (1.4 in) long, 3.2 cm (1.3 in) wide, and 1.3 cm (0.5 in) deep. Brilliant-cut diamonds usually have 58 facets, but
21122-580: The kingdom governed by Gulab Singh. Following his nephew Prime Minister Hira Singh's assassination on 27 March 1844, and the subsequent outbreak of the First Anglo-Sikh War , Gulab Singh himself led the Sikh empire as its prime minister, and despite defeat in the war, he became the first Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir on 16 March 1846, under the Treaty of Amritsar . On 29 March 1849, following
21301-466: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed
21480-551: The leaders of the mutiny near Jalore. After Nusrat Khan was killed during the siege, Alauddin personally took charge of the siege operations, and conquered the fort in July 1301. During the Ranthambore campaign, Alauddin faced three unsuccessful rebellions . To suppress any future rebellions, he set up an intelligence and surveillance system, instituted a total prohibition in Delhi, established laws to prevent his nobles from networking with each other, and confiscated wealth from
21659-526: The loyal nobles. Alauddin then entered the city, where a number of nobles and officials accepted his authority. On 21 October 1296, Alauddin was formally proclaimed as the Sultan in Delhi. Initially, Alauddin consolidated power by making generous grants and endowments and appointing many people to government positions. He balanced the power between the officers appointed by the Mamluks , the ones appointed by Jalaluddin and his own appointees. He also increased
21838-471: The main difficulty affecting his reign. He also had to face talk of conspiracies at his court. After some initial conspiracies and Hindu revolts in rural areas during the early period of his reign, he struck the root of the problem by introducing reforms that also aimed at ensuring support of his army and food supply to his capital. He took away all landed properties of his courtiers and nobles and cancelled revenue assignments which were henceforth controlled by
22017-522: The making of the ornate Peacock Throne in 1635. Over a century later in 1738 Nader Shah founded the Afsharid dynasty . Following the overthrow of the Safavid dynasty of Persia two years earlier, he began raiding Mughal territory before soon launching a full-scale invasion of North-West India . This invading force soon captured Delhi where, after a massacre of the civilian population, the army began
22196-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following
22375-429: The most desirable jewels by the nobility. During this time the Persian new year ceremony, Nowruz , had become a period in which the subjects could bring offerings of gems and money to the imperial family in exchange for political promotions within the greater bureaucracy. By the time Shah Jahan ascended the throne as the fifth Mughal emperor, there were so many jewels in the treasury that he decided to use many of them in
22554-536: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as
22733-466: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
22912-499: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
23091-495: The neighboring Hindu kingdoms. In 1293, he raided Bhilsa , a wealthy town in the Paramara kingdom of Malwa , which had been weakened by multiple invasions. At Bhilsa, he learned of the immense wealth of the southern Yadava kingdom in the Deccan region, as well as about the routes leading to their capital Devagiri . Therefore, he shrewdly surrendered the loot from Bhilsa to Jalaluddin to win Sultan's confidence, while withholding
23270-454: The news of Alauddin's success reached Jalaluddin, the Sultan came to Gwalior , hoping that Alauddin would present the loot to him there. However, Alauddin marched directly to Kara with all the wealth. Jalaluddin's advisors such as Ahmad Chap recommended intercepting Alauddin at Chanderi, but Jalaluddin had faith in his nephew. He returned to Delhi, believing that Alauddin would carry the wealth from Kara to Delhi. After reaching Kara, Alauddin sent
23449-665: The news spread in towns and villages that he was recruiting soldiers while distributing gold. Many people, from both military and non-military backgrounds, joined him. By the time he reached Badaun, he had a 56,000-strong cavalry and a 60,000-strong infantry. At Baran, Alauddin was joined by seven powerful Jalaluddin nobles who had earlier opposed him. These nobles were Tajul Mulk Kuchi, Malik Abaji Akhur-bek, Malik Amir Ali Diwana, Malik Usman Amir-akhur, Malik Amir Khan, Malik Umar Surkha, and Malik Hiranmar. Alauddin gave each of them 30 to 50 mann s of gold, and each of their soldiers 300 silver tanka s (hammered coins). Alauddin's march to Delhi
23628-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian
23807-732: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became
23986-455: The officers, elephants, and wealth that Alauddin had left at Kara. Alauddin appointed Ala-ul Mulk as the kotwal of Delhi and placed all the non-Turkic municipal employees under his charge. Since Ala-ul Mulk had become very obese , the governorship of Kara was entrusted to Nusrat Khan, who had become unpopular in Delhi because of the confiscations. In the winter of 1297, the Mongols led by
24165-542: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in
24344-419: The origin of the diamond. However, in the words of the colonial administrator Theo Metcalfe , there is "very meagre and imperfect" evidence of the early history of the Koh-i-Noor before the 1740s. There is no record of its original weight, but the earliest attested weight is 186 old carats (191 metric carats or 38.2 g). The first verifiable record of the diamond comes from a history by Muhammad Kazim Marvi of
24523-531: The other southern kingdoms, which had accumulated a huge amount of wealth, having been shielded from the foreign armies that had ransacked northern India. In late 1309, he sent Malik Kafur to ransack the Kakatiya capital Warangal . Helped by Ramachandra of Devagiri, Kafur entered the Kakatiya territory in January 1310, ransacking towns and villages on his way to Warangal. After a month-long siege of Warangal ,
24702-474: The practice of punishing wives and children for the crimes of men started with this incident in Delhi. In 1299, the Chagatai ruler Duwa sent a Mongol force led by Qutlugh Khwaja to conquer Delhi. In the ensuing Battle of Kili , Alauddin personally led the Delhi forces, but his general Zafar Khan attacked the Mongols without waiting for his orders. Although Zafar Khan managed to inflict heavy casualties on
24881-638: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian
25060-555: The process of decolonisation". In a letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan , Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , the prime minister of the United Kingdom, James Callaghan , wrote, "I need not remind you of the various hands through which the stone has passed over the past two centuries, nor that explicit provision for its transfer to the British crown was made in the peace treaty with the Maharajah of the Sikh Empire in 1849. I could not advise Her Majesty that it should be surrendered." In 2000,
25239-633: The protector of the weaker section of the rural society. However, while the cultivators were free from the demands of the landowners, the high taxes imposed by the state meant a cultivator had "barely enough for carrying on his cultivation and his food requirements." To enforce these land and agrarian reforms, Alauddin set up a strong and efficient revenue administration system. His government recruited many accountants, collectors and agents. These officials were well-paid but were subject to severe punishment if found to be taking bribes. Account books were audited and even small discrepancies were punished. The effect
25418-510: The ratification of this treaty was the Marquess of Dalhousie . The manner of his aiding in the transfer of the diamond was criticized even by some of his contemporaries in Britain. Although some thought it should have been presented as a gift to Queen Victoria by the East India Company, it is clear that Dalhousie believed the stone was a spoil of war, and treated it accordingly, ensuring that it
25597-480: The re-cut diamond to the young Maharaja Duleep Singh , the Koh-i-Noor's last non-British owner, he was apparently unable to speak for several minutes afterwards. The much lighter but more dazzling stone was mounted in a honeysuckle brooch and a circlet worn by the queen. At this time, it belonged to her personally, and was not yet part of the Crown Jewels. Although Victoria wore it often, she became uneasy about
25776-529: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
25955-549: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali
26134-419: The reign of the then 11-year-old Maharaja of the Sikh Empire , Duleep Singh . The young king ruled under the shadow of the Company ally Gulab Singh , the first Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir , who had previously possessed the stone. Originally, the stone was of a similar cut to other Mughal-era diamonds, like the Daria-i-Noor , which are now in the Iranian National Jewels . In 1851, it went on display at
26313-436: The rest of his life in exile. In due course, the Governor-General received the Koh-i-Noor from Dr Login, who had been appointed Governor of the Citadel, on 6 April 1848 under a receipt dated 7 December 1849, in the presence of members of the Board of Administration for the affairs of the Punjab: Sir Henry Lawrence (President), C. G. Mansel, John Lawrence and Sir Henry Elliot (Secretary to the Government of India). Legend in
26492-554: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . The Persian language influenced
26671-452: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses
26850-458: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
27029-450: The stone was put inside a gilded birdcage, but after complaints about its dull appearance, the Koh-i-Noor was moved to a case with black velvet and gas lamps in the hope that it would sparkle better. Despite this, the flawed and asymmetrical diamond still failed to please viewers. Originally, the diamond had 169 facets and was 4.1 centimetres (1.6 in) long, 3.26 centimetres (1.28 in) wide, and 1.62 centimetres (0.64 in) deep. It
27208-480: The story of Borgia cutting the diamond is not correct, and most probably mixed up with that of the Orlov , part of Catherine the Great 's imperial Russian scepter in the Kremlin . In early Indian history, diamonds were the most valued of gemstones. However, during the period of Mughal rule, diamonds lost this distinction. When looking at the Mughal treasury, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak , the Grand vizier to Akbar , noted that red spinels and Burmese rubies had become
27387-405: The strength of the Sultanate's army, and gifted every soldier the salary of a year and a half in cash. Of Alauddin's first year as the Sultan, chronicler Ziauddin Barani wrote that it was the happiest year that the people of Delhi had ever seen. At this time, Alauddin could not exercise his authority over all of Jalaluddin's former territories. In the Punjab region , his authority was limited to
27566-421: The throne of Delhi. This, combined with his unhappy domestic life, made Alauddin determined to dethrone Jalaluddin. While instigating Alauddin to revolt against Jalaluddin, Malik Chajju's supporters emphasized that he needed a lot of money to raise a large army and stage a successful coup: Malik Chajju's revolt had failed for want of resources. To finance his plan to dethrone Jalaluddin, Alauddin decided to raid
27745-419: The throne, requesting him to march from Multan to Delhi. However, Arkali refused to come to her aid. Alauddin resumed his march to Delhi in the second week of October 1296, when the Yamuna river subsided. When he reached Siri , Ruknuddin led an army against him. However, a section of Ruknuddin's army defected to Alauddin at midnight. A dejected Ruknuddin then retreated and escaped to Multan with his mother and
27924-525: The time under Jait Singh I. Following a long siege and due to the dearth of food and resources, eventually, the besieged Rajputs under the command of Mularaja performed Saka where the women committed Jauhar and the men fought until death. Thus, Alauddin successfully penetrated into territories of the Bhattis. After the conquest of Jaisalmer, it remained under the Khalji's for few more years. In 1301, Alauddin ordered Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan to invade Ranthambore , whose king Hammiradeva had granted asylum to
28103-422: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in
28282-451: The value of the Koh-i-Noor". After Nadir Shah was killed and his empire collapsed in 1747, the Koh-i-Noor fell to his grandson, who in 1751 gave it to Ahmad Shah Durrani , founder of the Afghan Empire , in return for his support. One of Ahmed's grandsons, Shah Shuja Durrani , wore a bracelet containing the Koh-i-Noor on the occasion of Mountstuart Elphinstone 's visit to Peshawar in 1808. A year later, Shah Shuja formed an alliance with
28461-399: The way in which the diamond had been acquired. In a letter to her eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal , she wrote in the 1870s: "No one feels more strongly than I do about India or how much I opposed our taking those countries and I think no more will be taken, for it is very wrong and no advantage to us. You know also how I dislike wearing the Koh-i-Noor". After Queen Victoria's death,
28640-400: Was Ali Gurshasp. He was the eldest son of Shihabuddin Mas'ud, who was the elder brother of the Khalji dynasty 's founder Sultan Jalaluddin . He had three brothers: Almas Beg (later Ulugh Khan), Qutlugh Tigin, and Muhammad. Alauddin was brought up by Jalaluddin after Shihabuddin's death. Both Alauddin and his younger brother Almas Beg married Jalaluddin's daughters. After Jalaluddin became
28819-452: Was a nephew and a son-in-law of his predecessor Jalaluddin . When Jalaluddin became the Sultan of Delhi after deposing the Mamluks , Alauddin was given the position of Amir-i-Tuzuk (equivalent to master of ceremonies ). After suppressing a revolt against Jalaluddin, Alauddin obtained the governorship of Kara in 1291, and the governorship of Awadh in 1296, after a profitable raid on Bhilsa . In 1296, Alauddin raided Devagiri , and used
28998-407: Was a state property rather than Ranjit Singh's personal property, and therefore, should be handed over to Kharak Singh. After Ranjit Singh's death, Beli Ram refused to send the diamond to the temple, and hid it in his vaults. Meanwhile, Kharak Singh and wazir Dhian Singh also issued orders stating that the diamond should not be taken out of Lahore. On 8 October 1839, the new emperor Kharak Singh
29177-416: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of
29356-428: Was both large landowners and small-scale cultivators were fearful of missing out on paying their assessed taxes. Alauddin's government imposed the jizya tax on its non-Muslim subjects, and his Muslim subjects were obligated to contribute zakat . He also levied taxes on residences ( ghari ) and grazing ( chara'i ), which were not sanctioned by the Islamic law. In addition, Alauddin demanded four-fifths share of
29535-442: Was brought to the United Kingdom. Replicas of the diamond in this and its re-cut forms can also be seen in the 'Vault' exhibit at the Natural History Museum, London . During the Second World War, the Crown Jewels were moved from their home at the Tower of London to Windsor Castle . They were kept in leather hat boxes under lock and key in the office of the Royal Librarian Sir Owen Morshead until 1941 when they were transferred to
29714-445: Was confiscated. As a result of these confiscations, Nusrat Khan obtained a huge amount of cash for the royal treasury. Only three malik s from Jalaluddin's time were spared: Malik Qutbuddin Alavi, Malik Nasiruddin Rana, and Malik Amir Jamal Khalji. The rest of the older aristocrats were replaced with the new nobles, who were extremely loyal to Alauddin. Meanwhile, Ala-ul Mulk, who was Alauddin's governor at Kara, came to Delhi with all
29893-414: Was crowned with Queen Mary's Crown at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla on 6 May 2023, but without the Koh-i-Noor diamond. All these crowns are on display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London with crystal replicas of the diamond set in the older crowns. The original bracelet given to Queen Victoria can also be seen there. A glass model of the Koh-i-Noor shows visitors how it looked when it
30072-485: Was high-domed, with a flat base and both triangular and rectangular facets, similar in overall appearance to other Mughal-era diamonds which are now in the Iranian Crown Jewels . Disappointment in the appearance of the stone was not uncommon; Punch magazine referred to it as the "Mountain of Darkness," a play on the English translation of its name as "Mountain of Light". After consulting mineralogists, including Sir David Brewster , Victoria's husband Prince Albert with
30251-472: Was in Mauritius had the locals demanding its departure, and they asked their governor to open fire on the vessel and destroy it if there was no response. Shortly afterwards, the vessel was hit by a severe gale that blew for some 12 hours. On arrival in Britain on 29 June, the passengers and mail were unloaded in Plymouth , but the Koh-i-Noor stayed on board until the ship reached Spithead , near Portsmouth , on 1 July. The next morning, Ramsay and Mackeson, in
30430-409: Was interrupted by the flooding of the Yamuna river. Meanwhile, in Delhi, Jalaluddin's widow Malka-i-Jahan appointed her youngest son Qadr Khan as the new king with the title Ruknuddin Ibrahim, without consulting the nobles. This irked Arkali Khan, her elder son and the governor of Multan . When Malika-i-Jahan heard that Jalaluddin's nobles had joined Alauddin, she apologized to Arkali and offered him
30609-416: Was non-negotiable. In 2000, several members of the Indian Parliament signed a letter calling for the diamond to be given back to India, claiming it was taken illegally. British officials said that a variety of claims meant it was impossible to establish the diamond's original owner, and that it had been part of Britain's heritage for more than 150 years. In July 2010, while visiting India, David Cameron ,
30788-453: Was officially surrendered to her by Duleep Singh , the youngest son of Ranjit Singh. The presentation of the Koh-i-Noor by the East India Company to the queen was the latest in a long history of transfers of the diamond as a coveted spoil of war. Duleep Singh had been placed in the guardianship of Dr John Spencer Login , a surgeon in the East India Company Army serving in the Presidency of Bengal . Duleep Singh moved to England in 1854 and spent
30967-466: Was overthrown in a coup by his prime minister Dhian Singh. The prime minister's brother Gulab Singh , Raja of Jammu , came into possession of the Koh-i-Noor. Kharak Singh later died in prison, soon followed by the mysterious death of his son and successor Nau Nihal Singh on 5 November 1840. Gulab Singh held onto the stone until January 1841, when he presented it to emperor Sher Singh in order to win his favour, after his brother Dhian Singh negotiated
31146-484: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in
31325-481: Was probably the one institution from his reign that lasted the longest, surviving indeed into the nineteenth or even the twentieth century. From now on, the land tax ( kharaj or mal ) became the principal form in which the peasant's surplus was expropriated by the ruling class. Alauddin also eliminated the intermediary Hindu rural chiefs, and started collecting the kharaj directly from the cultivators. He did not levy any additional taxes on agriculture, and abolished
31504-488: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in the Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in
31683-447: Was the most powerful ruler of his dynasty. Unlike the previous rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, who had largely relied on the pre-existing administrative set-up, Alauddin undertook large-scale reforms. After facing the Mongol invasions and several rebellions , he implemented several reforms to be able to maintain a large army and to weaken those capable of organizing a revolt against him. Barani also attributes Alauddin's revenue reforms to
31862-406: Was then sent to England for presentation to Queen Victoria in the care of Captain J. Ramsay and Brevet Lt. Col F. Mackeson under tight security arrangements, one of which was the placement of the dispatch box in a larger iron safe. They departed from Bombay on 6 April on board HMS Medea , captained by Captain Lockyer. The ship had a difficult voyage: an outbreak of cholera on board when the ship
32041-425: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
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