About Aga Mohammed and His Pursuit of the Crown Jewels

On the fall of Shahrukh (? 1783), Ahmed Shah had allowed him to reside at Meshed, and govern it and the surrounding district. Thousands of pilgrims annually resorted to the sacred tomb or shrine of the Imam Riza. Aga Mohammed, who advanced with a force to that city, pretended to be merely one of these. His real reason for the expedition was this: When Shahrukh went to Meshed, the fallen monarch took with him many jewels of great value, part of the spoils which Nadir had brought from India. Aga Mohammed, like Nadir, was passionately fond of jewels, and after he had prayed at the holy tomb, he requested the blind monarch to deliver up the gems. He, however, protested that he had none, so he was ordered to be tortured, and revealed the hiding-places of stones of great value. The last torture was diabolical. A circle of paste was put on his head, and boiling oil poured in; its effect being that an immense ruby which had been in the crown of Aurungzebe was given up. The poor king soon after died from the injuries received. Aga Mohammed, however, met with the retribution he deserved, for he was some time afterwards assassinated; and one of his leading generals, Sadek Khan Shekaki, knew something beforehand of this deed, for he protected the murderers, and received from them the crown jewels, including the celebrated diamonds, the Taj-Mah, or Crown of the Moon, and the Derya-i-noor, or Sea of Light.