The Koh-i-Noor comes to Lahore

Who: Maharaja Ranjit Singh; Shah Shuja, the exiled Afghan ruler who owned the Koh-i-Noor; and Shah Shuja's wife Wafa Begum. In Sohan Lal Suri's account, as reported in Dawn, Fakir Azizuddin, Ranjit Singh's adviser, advised helping her husband only if the diamond was handed over.

What: The Tribune reports that Shah Shuja left Kabul in 1809, after his brother Shah Mahmud drove him out, carrying jewels that included the Koh-i-Noor. He was held at Attock and then in Kashmir. Wafa Begum went to Lahore and pledged the stone to Ranjit Singh in return for rescuing him. Shah Shuja was brought to Lahore and lodged in the Mubarak Haveli inside Mochi Gate. Once safe he tried to avoid the bargain, claiming the diamond was pawned at Kandahar and offering a large topaz instead, and Ranjit Singh placed him under house arrest. The Tribune says he asked for fifty days and surrendered the stone on 7 June 1813. Dawn's Majid Sheikh, following Sohan Lal Suri and Henry Prinsep, gives 1 June 1813: Shah Shuja arrived late, the two men sat in silence for about an hour, and a eunuch then brought a small roll of cloth that held the diamond. Ranjit Singh took it and left. Shah Shuja's own diary says he gave it up only after his son was tortured before his eyes; that is his account alone.

Where: Lahore, where Shah Shuja was being kept.

Why it mattered: The Koh-i-Noor became a jewel of the Sikh court. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism notes that Ranjit Singh wore it on his arm on special occasions. Khushwant Singh names Misr Beli Ram, the Darbar's chief accountant, as its custodian in 1839, and writes that in January 1841 Gulab Singh Dogra handed it to Maharaja Sher Singh. It left Lahore with the kingdom. At the durbar of 29 March 1849 that ended the Punjab's independence, Khushwant Singh records, the young Maharaja Duleep Singh handed it over, and the Tribune reports that the British then gave it to Queen Victoria. Wikipedia, citing Login, gives the 1849 terms: the stone was to be surrendered by the Maharaja of Lahore to the Queen of England.