DARYA-E NUR

largest and finest diamond in the crown jewels of Iran. A pale-pink, tablet-shaped stone weighing about 185 carats, it is from Golconda, Andhra Pradesh, India. Inscribed on a rear facet is the name of Fath 'Ali Shah and the date 1834, the year of his death. Experts from the Royal Ontario Museum have postulated that the Darya-e Nur (meaning sea of light) is the major portion of the Great Table diamond, seen by the French jewel trader Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in Golconda in 1642. The other piece of the Great Table is thought to have been recut as an oval, pink, 60-carat brilliant called the Nur ol-'Eyn (meaning light of the eye).