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Author: G. P. Taylor
Publisher: SaltRiver
Published: 2011-04-25
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781414319490
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen an anonymous note threatens someone they love, twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple are thrust into a series of crimes that look suspiciously like something from the pages of a mystery novel.
Author: Vincent Arthur Smith
Publisher:
Published: 1917
Total Pages: 562
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAkbar the Great Mogul, 1542-1605 is a biography of Akbar I (reigned, 1556-1605), the third and greatest of the Mughal emperors of India. The author, Vincent Arthur Smith, was an Irish-born historian and antiquary who served in the Indian Civil Service before turning to full-time research and scholarship. After assuming the throne while still a youth, Akbar succeeded in consolidating and enlarging the Mughal Empire. He instituted reforms of the tax structure, the organization and control of the military, and the religious establishment and its relationship to the state. He was also a patron of culture and the arts, and he had a keen interest in religion and the possible sources of religious knowledge. The book traces Akbar's ancestry and early years; his accession to the throne and his regency under Bayram Khan; his many conquests, including Bihar, the Afghan kingdom of Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, Kashmir, Sind, parts of Orissa, and parts of the Deccan Plateau; and his annexation of other territories through diplomacy, including Baluchistan and Kandahar. The book devotes considerable attention to Akbar's religious beliefs and interests. On several occasions Akbar requested that the Portuguese authorities in Goa send priests to his court to teach him about Christianity, and the book recounts the stories of the three Jesuit missions organized in response to these requests. By origin a Sunni Muslim, Akbar also sought to learn from Shiʻite scholars, Sufi mystics, and Hindus, Jains, and Parsis. The last four chapters of the book are not chronological but deal with the Akbar's personal characteristics, civil and military institutions in the empire, the social and economic conditions of the people, and literature and art. The book contains a detailed chronology of the life and reign of Akbar and an annotated bibliography. Also included are maps and illustrations. Maps of India in 1561 and India in 1605 show the extent of Akbar's conquests, and sketch maps illustrate his main military campaigns.
Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2017-09-12
Total Pages: 307
ISBN-13: 1635570778
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom the internationally acclaimed and bestselling historians William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, the first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, arguably the most celebrated jewel in the world. On March 29, 1849, the ten-year-old leader of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the center of the British fort in Lahore, India. There, in a formal Act of Submission, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company swathes of the richest land in India and the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond, otherwise known as the Mountain of Light. To celebrate the acquisition, the British East India Company commissioned a history of the diamond woven together from the gossip of the Delhi Bazaars. From that moment forward, the Koh-i-Noor became the most famous and mythological diamond in history, with thousands of people coming to see it at the 1851 Great Exhibition and still more thousands repeating the largely fictitious account of its passage through history. Using original eyewitness accounts and chronicles never before translated into English, Dalrymple and Anand trace the true history of the diamond and disperse the myths and fantastic tales that have long surrounded this awe-inspiring jewel. The resulting history of south and central Asia tells a true tale of greed, conquest, murder, torture, colonialism, and appropriation that shaped a continent and the Koh-i-Noor itself.
Author: Adrienne Munich
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: 2020-05-19
Total Pages: 382
ISBN-13: 0813944015
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn 1850, the legendary Koh-i-noor diamond, gem of Eastern potentates, was transferred from the Punjab in India and, in an elaborate ceremony, placed into Queen Victoria’s outstretched hands. This act inaugurated what author Adrienne Munich recognizes in her engaging new book as the empire of diamonds. Diamonds were a symbol of political power—only for the very rich and influential. But, in a development that also reflected the British Empire’s prosperity, the idea of owning a diamond came to be marketed to the middle class. In all kinds of writings, diamonds began to take on an affordable romance. Considering many of the era’s most iconic voices—from Dickens and Tennyson to Kipling and Stevenson—as well as grand entertainments such as The Moonstone, King Solomon’s Mines, and the tales of Sherlock Holmes, Munich explores diamonds as fetishes that seem to contain a living spirit exerting powerful effects, and shows how they scintillated the literary and cultural imagination. Based on close textual attention and rare archival material, and drawing on ideas from material culture, fashion theory, economic criticism, and fetishism, Empire of Diamonds interprets the various meanings of diamonds, revealing a trajectory including Indian celebrity-named diamonds reserved for Asian princes, such as the Great Mogul and the Hope Diamond, their adoption by British royal and aristocratic families, and their discovery in South Africa, the mining of which devastated the area even as it opened the gem up to the middle classes. The story Munich tells eventually finds its way to America, as power and influence cross the Atlantic, bringing diamonds to a wide consumer culture.
Author: Henry Mills Alden
Publisher:
Published: 1859
Total Pages: 884
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKImportant American periodical dating back to 1850.
Author: Mrs Goddard Orpen
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Published:
Total Pages: 204
ISBN-13: 1465553010
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Annemarie Schimmel
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9781861891853
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnnemarie Schimmel has written extensively on India, Islam and poetry. In this comprehensive study she presents an overview of the cultural, economic, militaristic and artistic attributes of the great Mughal Empire from 1526 to 1857.
Author: Pavan C. Lall
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2019-08-25
Total Pages: 148
ISBN-13: 938832238X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn early 2018, the implosion of Nirav Modi’s Firestar Diamonds International, on its way to becoming India’s first truly global luxury company, threw the country’s diamond industry and its banking system into utter disarray. Allegations against Modi, of defrauding banks to the tune of US$1.8 billion, brought a whole business community under scrutiny and escalated rapidly into an international scandal. Based on personal encounters, incisive interviews and meticulous research, this riveting narrative exposes the incredible twists and turns of the Nirav Modi story – of a third-generation diamantaire who moved from Belgium to India to apprentice with his uncle, Mehul Choksi, an established diamond merchant with extensive connections; of an astute businessman whose firm grip over an intercontinental supply chain saw his branded jewellery stores dotting not just every Indian metropolis but also marquee locations such as London, New York and Hong Kong; and of a reclusive, inscrutable man with a penchant for the high life that possibly led him to fly too close to the sun. As the Nirav Modi saga – complete with his arrest on international soil, rejected bail pleas, extradition theatrics and the frenzied pursuit of diamond-trading minutiae by investigative agencies across three nations – continues to make headlines, Flawed recounts in close, compelling detail the rise of a global player and his equally dramatic fall. Arresting and revelatory, it raises indispensable questions about how one man’s drive to succeed at all costs can jeopardize an entire ecosystem.
Author: Ian Balfour
Publisher: ACC Distribution
Published: 1997
Total Pages: 328
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"The history of great diamonds is intimately interwoven with the lives of emperors and conquerors, great kings and queens, with statesmen and soldiers, the rich and famous - but also, inevitably, with those who lead more shadowy lives. Diamonds have been objects of passion, sometimes of war, violence and theft." "As well as being objects of exceptional beauty and rarity, they were once thought to possess magical properties that protected their owners from enemies. Initially a male prerogative reflecting status and authority, these incredible gems later adorned the wives of powerful men, and at times were offered as influential gifts. Few were immune to the temptation of diamonds; many sacrificed their lives and souls to them." "In Famous Diamonds, Ian Balfour tells the fascinating stories of almost 80 of these remarkable gems including the famous: Koh-i-Noor, which is set in the British Crown Jewels; the infamous: the deep blue Hope Diamond, which is said to bring bad luck to all who handle it; the biggest: The Cullinan; and the Hollywood romantic: the Taylor-Burton Diamond. Some have detailed histories that can be traced from the present day back to the moment they were mined, while others have a more mysterious past or have disappeared from view. Also included are shorter entries on a further selection of some forty notable diamonds."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Alicia Oltuski
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2011-07-19
Total Pages: 370
ISBN-13: 143917170X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn the middle of New York City lies a neighborhood where all secrets are valuable, all assets are liquid, and all deals are sealed with a blessing rather than a contract. Welcome to the diamond district. Ninety percent of all diamonds that enter America pass through these few blocks, but the inner workings of this mysterious world are known only to the people who inhabit it. In Precious Objects, twenty-six-year-old journalist Alicia Oltuski, the daughter and granddaughter of diamond dealers, seamlessly blends family narrative with literary reportage to reveal the fascinating secrets of the diamond industry and its madcap characters: an Elvis-impersonating dealer, a duo of diamond-detective brothers, and her own eccentric father. With insight and drama, Oltuski limns her family’s diamond-paved move from communist Siberia to a displaced persons camp in post–World War II Germany to New York’s diamond district, exploring the connections among Jews and the industry, the gem and its lore, and the exotic citizens of this secluded world. Entertaining and illuminating, Precious Objects offers an insider’s look at the history, business, and society behind one of the world’s most coveted natural resources, providing an unforgettable backstage pass to an extraordinary and timeless show.
