Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond

by William Dalrymple

cunning adversary. Wellesley encouraged the Qajar Persian Shah to attack Shah Zaman’s undefended rear. In 1799, as the news of the Persian siege of Herat reached him, Shah Zaman was forced to retreat. In the process he left Lahore under the governorship of a capable and ambitious young Sikh, Raja Ranjit Singh. Ranjit’s grandfather, Charat Singh, had been among the first Sikhs to build strong forts and defy the authority of the Durranis’ lieutenants thirty years earlier. Ranjit Singh had also initially harried Shah Zaman’s troops, but as the Afghan prepared to retreat he changed tack. Reaching out to make peace, he helped Shah Zaman save some cannon lost in the mud of the river Jhelum. By charming the Shah, and impressing him with his efficiency, Ranjit Singh was given charge of much of Punjab, although he was only nineteen years old, blind in one eye from a childhood bout of smallpox, and commanded barely 5000 horse.13 He took charge of the citadel of Lahore on 7 July 1799, and held it for the rest of his life. In the years that followed, as Shah Zaman tried to maintain his fracturing empire, it was Ranjit Singh who would slowly prise the lucrative eastern provinces of the Durrani empire from his former overlord and take his place as the dominant power, eventually ruling not just Punjab, but all the lands from Peshawar to the borders of Sindh.