Noor-ul-Ain — “Light of the Eye,” One of the World's Largest Pink Diamonds
Noor-ul-Ain — “Light of the Eye,” One of the World's Largest Pink Diamonds
A historic 60-carat pale pink diamond at the centre of a tiara in the Iranian Crown Jewels
The Noor-ul-Ain ("Light of the Eye" in Persian) is a historic pale pink diamond of approximately 60 carats, mounted as the centrepiece of a tiara in the Iranian Crown Jewels held in the Treasury of National Jewels at the Central Bank of Iran in Tehran. It is one of the largest pink diamonds in the world by weight, sitting in a small group of historic pink diamonds that includes the Darya-i-Noor (also held in the same collection), the Princie diamond, the Pink Star, and a handful of others. The Noor-ul-Ain is unique in this group for being still mounted as part of a working royal-jewellery setting rather than as a museum-display loose stone or as a piece in a private collection.
The Treasury of National Jewels
The Iranian Crown Jewels — properly the Treasury of National Jewels (Khazaneh-ye Javaherat-e Melli) — is one of the world's most extraordinary collections of historic gemstones and royal regalia. Centuries of Persian royal accumulation, supplemented by spoils brought back by Nader Shah from his 1739 invasion of Mughal India, produced a treasury that includes the Darya-i-Noor (the largest pink diamond in the world by weight, approximately 182 carats), the Noor-ul-Ain, the Pahlavi crown, the Kiani crown, the Globe of Jewels (a globe encrusted with 51,366 precious stones), and an inventory of pieces estimated at fifteen tonnes of gold, gemstones, and decorative objects.
The collection's modern history begins with the 1937 transfer of the treasury to the Central Bank of Iran (then Bank Melli) as backing for the national currency, where it remains. Public access to the displayed portion has been variable across the decades depending on Iranian political conditions: the treasury was open as a museum during the late Pahlavi period, closed for periods during and after the 1979 Revolution, and is now displayed under restricted public-access conditions.
Origin and history of the Noor-ul-Ain
The Noor-ul-Ain's origin is not definitively documented. Indian provenance is the most widely supported view, with various scholars suggesting that the diamond is one of the historic Indian stones brought to Persia by Nader Shah in the 1739 raid on Mughal Delhi. The same raid is credited with bringing the Darya-i-Noor and the Koh-i-Noor (subsequently lost to Persia) to Persian possession. The size and pink colour of the Noor-ul-Ain are consistent with Indian historical production from the Golconda region, which was the world's principal source of large diamonds before the eighteenth century. However, the documentary evidence linking the present stone specifically to the Nader Shah raid is incomplete, and some scholarly accounts treat the link as plausible rather than proven.
If the Indian origin hypothesis is correct, the diamond likely traces back to Mughal-era Indian royal accumulation, with prior history potentially extending into the Golconda mining tradition of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Pink diamonds of this size are extraordinarily rare in any source; the historical Indian production was the principal source of such stones before the discovery of pink diamond at Argyle (Australia) in the late twentieth century.
The Noor-ul-Ain Tiara
The Noor-ul-Ain is mounted as the principal stone of a tiara created in 1958 for the wedding of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, to Empress Farah Diba (Farah Pahlavi). The tiara was designed and executed by Harry Winston, who was commissioned to create a setting that would showcase the historic stone for the wedding ceremony and subsequent state occasions. The setting incorporates the Noor-ul-Ain at the centre, surrounded by approximately 324 additional diamonds, with platinum metalwork. The tiara was photographed extensively at the wedding and at subsequent state events of the Pahlavi era, providing the most well-known visual record of the Noor-ul-Ain.
Following the 1979 Revolution and the departure of the Pahlavi family from Iran, the tiara remained in the Treasury of National Jewels and is among the pieces displayed when the treasury is open to the public.
Gemmological description
The Noor-ul-Ain is described in published sources as a pale pink diamond of approximately 60 carats, with a brilliant cut. Detailed modern gemmological documentation comparable to the contemporary GIA reports issued for major modern pink diamonds (such as the Pink Star or the Argyle Pink Jubilee) is not publicly available; the diamond has not been removed from its setting for modern laboratory examination, and Iranian authorities have not commissioned and publicly released independent gemmological reports. Estimates of colour grade, clarity, and other technical parameters in published sources are necessarily approximations rather than confirmed laboratory findings.
Position among historic pink diamonds
The historic pink diamonds — Darya-i-Noor, Noor-ul-Ain, Princie, Williamson Pink, Daria-i-Noor (a separate stone in the Indian Crown Jewels), and others — together represent the small population of significant pink diamonds known before the late-twentieth-century Argyle discovery. Modern sources have produced more pink diamonds — Argyle in particular until its 2020 closure — but the historic stones retain a particular cultural and historical significance, and most reside in royal or state treasuries rather than the private market. The Noor-ul-Ain's continued presence in the Treasury of National Jewels gives it a different status from stones such as the Princie (sold by Christie's in 2013) or the Pink Star (sold by Sotheby's in 2017).