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THE "KOH-I-NOOR" DIAMOND. 71
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Our
great mineralogist identifies this with the large Diamond described by
Baber, the founder of the Mogul empire, in his Memoirs, the
authenticity of •which is unquestionable :—" He mentions it as part of
the spoil taken by his son Humajun at Agra, after the battle of
Paniput, in which fell Ibrahim Lodi, and with him his ally or
tributary, the Eajah of Gwalior, Bikramajeet, custodian of the fortress
of Agra. It is reported by Baber to have come into the Delhi treasury
from the conquest of Malwa by Ala-ud-deen in 1304."
"Baber gives its weight as about eight miskkah. in another passage he estimates the mishkal at forty rath, which
would make its weight 320 ratis." After mentioning the varying weight
of the rati at different times and places, he proceeds : " But the
eight mishkals of Baber afford a far more hopeful estimate of the
weight of this Diamond. This is a Persian weight, and seems to be and
to have been far less liable to variety of value at different times or
places. The Persian mishkal, or half-dirhem, weighs 74'5 grains Troy,
and eight of these equal 596 grains, or 187-58 carats. The
Koh-i-noor in the Exhibition of 1851 weighed 186 carats. This would
require a weight of 1-848 grain for the rati,—a number nearly
approximating to that given by the coins of Akbar."
Applying,
then, the conclusion that the great Diamond which was the spoil of
Ala-ud-deen in 1304, and had probably been for ages the crown jewel of
the independent Eajahs of Malwa, passed to the Mogul conqueror of the
Patan sovereigns, and was so inherited by the Mogul emperors, its
subsequent history may be thus traced. " It remained at Delhi until
another, the fiercest and the last, of the great inroads of the western
Tartar peoples broke over the hills of Affghanistan, and flooded the
plains of North-Western India.
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