The Mysterious Mr Jacob

by John Zubrzycki

The scandal that rocked the Raj when in 1891, a notorious curio-dealer from Simla offered to sell the world’s largest brilliant-cut diamond to the Nizam of Hyderabad. If the audacious deal came through, the merchant would have been set up for life. But the transaction went horribly wrong. The Nizam accused him of fraud, triggering a sensational trial in the Calcutta High Court that made headlines around the world. The dealer was Alexander Malcolm Jacob, a man of mysterious origins and colourful infamy. He was India’s most successful purveyor of precious stones and was rumoured to be ‘rich almost beyond the dreams of Aladdin’. Hailed as a celebrity in his own lifetime, he was the inspiration for the shadowy Lurgan Sahib in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. A confidant of viceroys and maharajahs, he dabbled in magic and was a player in the Great Game. Yet he died in obscurity, carrying many of his secrets to his grave. In this meticulously researched account of Jacob’s life, John Zubrzycki reconstructs events through long-lost letters, court records and annotations on secret files, bringing us a riveting study of a man whose obituary in a leading daily fittingly described him as the most ‘romantic and arresting figure in our time’.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Biography

368 pages, Unknown Binding

First published October 3, 2012

About the author

John Zubrzycki is an award-winning journalist whose long association with India has included stints as a Hindi student, diplomat, consultant and foreign correspondent. He is the world commentary editor at the Australian newspaper and lives in Sydney.

Reviews

[Shaili · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Zubrzycki, an Australian journalist, gained some fame when he wrote ‘The Last Nizam‘, a book about Mukarram Jah, his rise and subsequent fall. While that book was based on the Nizams of Hyderabad, his book ‘The Mysterious Mr. Jacob’, published by Random House India, is about Alexander Malcolm Jacob, a controversial diamond merchant, and how the Imperial Diamond contributed to his downfall.
The book is part biography and part thriller as the author delves deeper into the court case that started Alexander Jacob’s downfall. Alexander Malcolm Jacob is reported to have been an enigmatic and shrewd business man who practiced magic and illusions and cultivated a strong information network. The author talks about his past, the different versions of how he came to India and became a famous man.

Alexander Jacob owed much of his wealth to the benevolence of the Indian princes, known for competing against each other for status and the chance to show off their wealth by spending extravagantly on precious gems and artifacts from traders like Jacob. He accumulated great wealth on the commission he made from each item sold to these princes and the Britishers staying in India at that time. He also created a hype around myself by exaggerating the ‘adventure’ quotient of his beginnings in India. The illusions which he performed, added to his charisma, such that it was difficult to say no to anything.However, his lucks changed one day when he came to know of the Imperial Diamond. He soon realized that the commission made on this diamond would set him up for life and he would never have to work again.

The book is an interesting read. It tries to be neutral but puts Jacob on a pedestal at several places. The author has, no doubt, put in a lot of work, sifting through old British-era government documents, old newspapers in libraries, visiting each of the places that Jacob spent time in, in order to trace the eventful life of this enigmatic person. The book also reveals a fair bit of politics that the Britishers indulged in, to protect their interests in India. It also paints a picture of ‘society’ during the time the British reigned in India, especially the life of Rajahs and the power that they still enjoyed, in that period.

On the whole, the book keeps you interested in it, till the end. If you are interested in history, this book needs to be read!

Note: A copy of this book was provided by Random House India for an honest review.

More reviews on my blog: http://booksandalotmore.com

[Naina Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched treatise on all things Raj, gem trade and notoriety of the upper echelons of Indian society in the beginning of 20th century. It would be interesting to count exactly how many Europeans were occult practitioners in that era. My only peeve with this excellent biography is the way it ended. 3/4th way into the book, it seemed as if the writer wanted to hop skip and jump to the ending. A rather tame and watered down anti-climax for an otherwise sensational read.

[Shubham srivastava · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alexander Malcom Jacob, I never heard of this man. This book was at my home and somehow the topic attracted me and I started the book and the more I read the book the more I get surprised and attached to the man. But I wish the writer woul have wrote in bit simple way. The narration kept jumping from one year to different year and many a times it makes you feel how this person or this particular story is related to Mr. Jacob. Yet the book deliver its purpose you will know if you are Indian and watched scam 1992 that 101 year ago in 1891 there was a scamster (sorry merchant, magician and spy) way bigger and smarter than Harshad Mehta who rocked not only Nizam of hyderabad but also the whole British Raj. You will know why he was called "Uncrowned King of Simla".
Ps.: - While reading the book I didn't realise that India was not a free country and there were people because even in 1860 to 1891 every one was dealing in thousands and lakhs.

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about the person who created sensation in British Raj with a case against Nizam about the proceedings of selling diamond. This books details about life of Jacob.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1912 it was said that when the real story of Alexander Malcolm Jacob was written, it would be invested with more wonder and mystery than “even in our strangest dreams we never imagined it could possess.”(p.247)

Well, it took a hundred years, but in this book John Zubrzycki has probably got as close to the “real” story as anyone else is likely to do. Mr Jacob – diamond merchant, magician and spy – was happy to embroider and dissemble about his actual origins, but for the civil servants of the British Raj who escaped to the Indian hills of Simla to escape the summer heat, Mr Jacob was a celebrity. His shop was full of gems, curiosities and wonders, he lived in a opulent mansion ‘Belvedere’ and he was sought out for his magic and mystical skills and political contacts. He appeared in multiple newspaper articles, essays, books and Rudyard Kipling’s Kim (albeit, not under his own name but as Lurgan Sahib). He dealt with Indian princes and maneuvered the shadow world of British spies operating in the Far East, and yet he ended up largely impoverished, living on a rather miserly pension before his death in 1921 aged 71.

Many rumours spread about his origins – Jewish? Greek? Polish? Italian? – but Zubrzycki has tracked his birthplace down to a small town in Turkey, near the Syrian border. He was actually Catholic, but in a world obsessed with spiritualism, he attracted Theosophists and the adherents of Madame Blavatsky. He arrived in Bombay in 1865 penniless, and within 12 years had achieved celebrity status. His greatest, and as it turned out, most damaging challenge was to sell the Imperial diamond, the largest brilliant-cut diamond in the world, to Mahboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad in 1891. Fabulously wealthy and opium-addicted, the Nizam liked gems, and Jacob undertook to bring him the diamond from Europe on approval, hoping to make a hefty profit for his efforts. But the sale ended up in court and here, if perhaps anywhere, Zubryzycki got closest to discovering what may be the truth about Alexander Jacob.

The book is framed as the author’s search for the ‘real’ Mr Jacob, and the author strolls onto the page quite frequently as he hunts for locations, searches for documents and seeks an elusive photograph of him.
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The author has an engaging style, whipping up interest at the start of each chapter, and if he digresses it’s because they’re such interesting alleyways into which he is being drawn.
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It’s a rattling good yarn, as Mr Jacob knew himself in his various retellings and embellishments, and you can’t help but be imbued with Zubryzycki’s passion for such an enigmatic character.

For the full review, see https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...

[The Book Outline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A diamond larger than the famous Kohinoor was discovered in South Africa, smuggled to London, and offered for sale. What follows is an eventful journey that imparts a story, a history to the gem – a history that is much sought after by a collector. Following bizarre course of events, the Imperial Diamond or Jacob’s diamond, as it is presently known as, had ended up in the hands of the Nizam of Hyderabad, subsequently used as a paperweight before being forgotten inside a rotten old slipper. Now in the possession of the Government of India, the diamond fades away in a vault, and is only occasionally displayed in exhibitions.

Read the complete review at http://thebookoutline.blogspot.in/201...

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm hovering between 3 and 4 stars. This was an interesting look at one of the more mysterious and flamboyant figures of the late-19th century British Raj. The dearth of concrete information about this gem-dealer and likely spy means the book raises more questions than it answers. I was especially interested in the book's touches on the Victorian era's obsession with the occult and with Jacob's possible role in the Great Game. It's a bit of history I'd like to understand better.

[Ganesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Gave glimpses into 19th century high-society in British India. The writer's meticulous research has resulted in this remarkable book.

[Manjira Saha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very good read if one is interested in historical pieces of writing. There are lot of references of History & previous novels written by authors inspired by the protagonist Mr. Jacob.

[Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only because I enjoy this kind of thing!