Great Mogul

plural Great Moguls · alternative Great Moghul · alternative Great Mughal

1. datedA Mughal emperor.

   In 1739, the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah sacked Delhi and returned home with chests filled with gold, silver, emeralds, diamonds and pearls from the Great Mogul’s treasury.

   1992 May 8, Elaine Sciolino, “With New Pride, Iran Dusts Off the Crown Jewels”, in The New York Times

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   And then if the Pretender, nay if the Great Mogul, or any other Man (however averse they may be at present) did offer his Service to them for recovering their prissine State, they would, I am afraid, too readily comply to accept thereof, when chagrin’d, and fretted, and combin’d for that purpose.

   1712 January 29, “[Letter]”, in A Collection of Papers Against the Scots Toleration and Patronages […], published 1712, page 42

   This first of the Great Moguls is vaunted as the most accomplished prince that ever ruled over Hindostan; yet, as has been justly remarked, we nowhere see him in the edifying picture of a monarch devoting himself in peace to the improvement of his country and the happiness of his people.

   1857 October, “Delhi and the Muhammadan Rebellion in India”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume 111, number 442, page 130

   Was the pronouncement of the judicial committee no more relevant to the church than a pronouncement by the Great Mogul, with the important exception that it possessed the tyrannical power of enforcing its orders against the church?

   1966, Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, volume 1, page 262

   Synonyms: Grand Mogul

alternative Great Moghul · alternative Great Mughal

1. The Great Mogul diamond, a gem once belonging to the Mughal emperors.

   The Persians are believed to have acquired the stone after Nadir Shah looted Delhi in 1739. The Great Mogul has disappeared since that time.

   2005, Glenn Klein, Faceting History: Cutting Diamonds and Colored Stones, →ISBN, page 184

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   All we know of the Great Mogul is derived from Bernier and Tavernier. Whether after the latter had seen it, it was broken up, lost, or hidden away never to be rediscovered, we cannot say […]

   1883 January, “The Diamond”, in The Westminster Review, volume 119, number 235, page 49