386 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



engraving upon it his own names and titles ; and when he was reproved 

 for this hy the favourite Sultana, he replied : ' This stone will perhaps 

 carry my name further down through time than the empire of the 

 house of Timur.' " 



The statement in this paragraph, and some other evidence which 

 I have recently acquired, tend to show that the usually stated valua- 

 tions of the jewels in the peacock throne are from five to ten times 

 more than they should he ; but I cannot enter into that question 

 further on tlie present occasion. This "throne" ruby, as we shall see, 

 subsequently became the property of Ran jit Singh. 



The periods during which the above mentioned monarchs of Persia 

 reigned were as follows : — Timur, 1402 to 1409; Shah Eukh Mirza, 

 fourth son of Timur, 1409 to 1446 ; Ulug Beg, son of Shah Rukh, 

 1446 to 1449 ; Shah Abbas L, 1582 to 1627. The latter was an ally 

 and friend of Jahangir. Even the taking of Kandahar did not, it is 

 said, cause a serious rupture between them. It is uncertain whether 

 the despatch of the ruby by Jahangir to Shah Jahan was in 1617-6 

 or not until 1625, as on both of these dates there was reconciliation 

 and a passage of presents between father and son. 



We next have Tavernier's description and figure of a ruby belong- 

 ing to Shah Abbas II. of Persia : — " It is of the thickness and shape 

 of an egg, is bored through, and of very high colour, with the exception 

 of a small flaw at the side. The custodians are unwilling to say what 

 it cost . . . those who keep the registers of the King of Persia's jewels 

 merely say that this ruby has been in the possession of the King for 

 many years." 1 The weight is given, with the figure, as 192 ratis. 

 This would be equal to about 1 61-2-5- English carats. Apart from the 

 discrepancy in the weight, the figure alone would suggest that this 

 was the stone referred to by Barbaro above. 



A figure of what may probably have been the largest of the stones 

 mentioned by Barbaro, and subsequently by Chardin, has recently been 

 made to do duty as the "Mogul's diamond." ^ It certainly does not 

 represent a facetted stone, but a huge cabuchon, probably a ruby. 



Sir William Jones records that Ali Kuli Khan, afterwards called 

 Adil Shah, the immediate but only temporary successor of Nadir Shah, 

 before Shah Rukh was installed, had the treasures left by Nadir tran- 

 sported from Kelat to Meshed, Avhere he distributed a portion of them 

 to great and small, without limit ; he dispensed the purest silver 

 like common corn, and the most precious stones like pebbles and 



1 Tavernier's "Travels," Eng. Ed. 1889, vol. ii., pp. 127, 449. 



2 See Nature, Nov. 5, p. 6 ; and Dec. 10, p. 126, 1891. 



