THE KOH-I-NUR. 123
to
deliver up his concealed treasures. As the infatuated Shah Rokh still
protested that he had already parted with them, he was ordered to be
put to fresh torture, which had the effect of bringing to light several
costly gems. But as neither the " Koh-i-Nur " nor the immense ruby
known to have been in the crown of Aurung-zeb were amongst them, Aga
Mohammed devised a truly diabolical expedient to get hold of them. He
ordered his victim's head to be closely shaved and encircled with a
diadem of paste, and boiling oil to be poured into the receptacle thus
formed. But even the frightful agony of this torture could only induce
the victim to surrender the ruby. He still retained his hold of the
great diamond. The miserable monarch never recovered from these
injuries. Before his death, Ahmed Shah, founder of the Durani Afghan
Empire, came to his assistance in 1751, concluded an alliance with him,
and received in return the fatal gem, whose brilliancy could no longer
rejoice the lack-lustre eyes of Shah Rokh.*
Possession
of the unlucky gem proved no less disastrous to the Durani dynasty than
it had to the Mogul emperors, and to Nadir's family. At his death Ahmed
Shah bequeathed it to his son and heir Taimur Shah, who removed the
seat of government from Kandahar to Kabul, and who died in 1793.
