By Majid Sheikh

Dawn Sep 13, 2020

The ‘capture’ of the famed diamond ‘Koh-i-Noor’ from the Afghan ruler Shah Shuja in Lahore’s Mubarak Haveli by Maharajah Ranjit Singh in 1813, makes interesting reading. This piece is about the Afghan side of the incident.

We have all read Sikh and British era histories by writers with limited access to Afghan sources, especially the version ‘written’ by Shah Shuja himself. The plight through which he went makes a gripping reading. But first let us go over the history of how he acquired the diamond. We know that the Iranian ruler Nadir Shah raided India and acquired the Koh-i-Noor from the Mughals.

The diamond was probably mined in the Golconda and belonged to the South Indian Kakatiya Dynasty in the 14thcentury. When Alauddin Khilji conquered South India, he was presented this 186 carat diamond in his court by the Kakatiya ruler. Eventually it was acquired by Mughal emperor Babar, who passed it on to his ancestors, and hence Nadir Shah acquired it.

On Nadir Shah’s death the Multan-born Ahmed Shah Abdali of the Sadozai tribe, an army general, took over. So the diamond went to him. He acquired the title Durrani, meaning ‘Pearl of Pearls’. On his death due to a brain tumour his son Taimur Shah Durrani took over power and the diamond went to him.

On his death in 1793 his 24 sons violently trying to acquire the Durrani throne, led to their empire crumbling. His son Shah Zaman Durrani took over and acquired the Koh-i-Noor. By this time the enmity of the Sadozai and the Barakzai was at its peak and Shah Shuja came to power and the diamond went to him. Astrologers claimed, and still do, that it is cursed if a male ruler owns it.

After the Battle of Nimla in 1809, Shah Shuja wandered the mountains of Afghanistan and present-day Pakistan in search of support to retake Kabul and ‘his’ kingdom by crushing the Barakzai. Various Indian rulers were trying to lure him their way, all for the sake of the Koh-i-Noor. He was lured into a trap to settle in Attock fort, after a former Kabul official promised him assistance.

After dinner on the first night, the guards started throwing melon peels in jest at Shah Shuja. Soon he realised that he had been trapped after they locked him in prison. The next day he was taken for a bath in the Indus River with both hands tied, and was rushed that very night by a few guards to Kashmir and imprisoned by the ruler of Kashmir who wanted the diamond.

Word of this trap reached the wife of Shah Shuja, namely Wa’fa Begum. She decided to rush to Lahore and meet Maharajah Ranjit Singh to save her husband. Did she act independently, or did Shah Shuja send her, this remains a mystery.

Maharajah Ranjit Singh listened to her plea, then according to Sohan Lal Suri’s account, he consulted Fakir Azizuddin, who advised assistance only if the diamond was handed over. That promise Wa’fa Begum made.

So in 1813, a Sikh army mounted a raid on Kashmir and brought back Shah Shuja all tied up. He was lodged in the Mubarak Haveli inside Mochi Gate. He repeatedly claimed he did not have the diamond. So Ranjit Singh shifted his harem to a nearby ‘haveli’, blocking off all connection with the Afghan women nearby.

Then Shah Shuja claims in his diary ‘Waqi’at-e-Shah Shuja’ (Ch. 26), that he noticed that his food intake was slowly being reduced. Then his personal servants were not allowed to go outside the ‘haveli’. Shah Shuja still claimed that he did not have the diamond.

Writes Shah Shuja: “This one-eyed vulgar, low-natured captor has breached all norms of hospitality”. Then one day, so he claims, he was brought into the courtyard of Mubarak Haveli, where a cage stood, in which he was locked. When asked about the diamond he held on to his claim. The next day his son Prince Taimur was brought in and tortured in front of him. The screaming son pleaded that he hand over the wretched diamond and concentrate on reclaiming his throne.

On this, so claims Shah Shuja, he agreed to hand over the Koh-i-Noor. The following day a meeting was arranged with Ranjit Singh. It was the 1st of June, 1813, and the Sikh ruler sat down waiting for Shah Shuja to come. He took a long time coming, which irritated the Sikh ruler. Shah Shuja finally walked in with his attendants and sat down in silence.

According to Sikh sources, the “insolent Afghan” remained silent. According to the description by Henry Thoby Prinsep: “for almost one hour in solemn silence they sat. An irritated Ranjit signalled an attendant to remind Shah Shuja of his reason for coming. The silence continued. Finally the Shah signalled to his eunuch, who retired and returned with a small roll of cloth. He lay it on the ground and unfolded it. There lay the Koh-i-Noor. Ranjit looked at Fakir Azizuddin who nodded his head in approval. Ranjit silently took the diamond and left”.

What happened then? After considerable discussion in the Lahore Darbar it was claimed that the imprisoned Shah Shuja was of greater value to them than the diamond. Guarded visits to the Shalimar Gardens were allowed.

After about three months, it came to Ranjit Singh’s attention that the Shah had many more diamonds and jewellery. So he took Shah Shuja on a military expedition allegedly to attack Peshawar. On the way ‘robbers’ attacked Shah Shuja’s camp and took away all the jewellery. After the robbery the expedition returned to Lahore.

This incident led Shah Shuja to plan an escape “lest the Sikhs killed them all” he writes. With the help of street traders selling vegetables to the womenfolk, he got them in four teams dressed as poor Hindu women, out of Lahore and sent to Ludhiana, where British officials were helping him.

Ranjit was fuming mad at this escape. According to court historian Sohan Suri, the guards around the Mubarak Haveli were increased to 4,000, with orders to check all movement in the lanes and streets. Shah Shuja writes: “Even our lavatories had guards peeping in.”

Shah Shuja decided that the only way out was to escape through an underground tunnel. So he slept in the ‘tehkhana’ (basement) claiming it was a cool place. There at night slowly his men would dig and in the daytime cover it with a carpet. He writes that on the way they crossed seven foundational walls and reached a house hired for servants.

This escape plan took over three months. They blackened their faces, threw ash on themselves and easily passed the guards. Shah Shuja writes they all read Quranic verses to ‘blind the guards’. He narrated: “We reached the main drain of the Lahore Fort, which was dry and cut ourselves in the process. We reached the river bank, where pre-paid boatmen took us across”.

So it was that the Koh-i-Noor was acquired by the Lahore Darbar, and how the Afghan ruler escaped. It was placed in Lahore’s Toshakhana as the property of the Lahore Darbar. In 1849, the East India Company took over the jewel which now lies in the Tower of London museum.

Shah Shuja, conniving with Ranjit Singh’s enemies in the Punjab hills, attacked Kashmir and seized it. He sent for Rs150,000 owed by Lahore’s money-changers, only for Ranjit Singh’s spies to find out and deposited it with the Lahore Treasury. He then sold his wife Wa’fa Begum’s jewellery, which she had smuggled out of Ludhiana, to raise an army.