"Location, location, location": a proverb?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Who was he trying to convince?

Also, could a pound sterling of 1739 really be worth _1,000_ pounds today?

JL

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote: ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society
Poster:       "Joel S. Berson"
Subject:      Re: "Location, location, location": a proverb?
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 From the 18th century ... what, this isn't the "long 18th century"
email list? ... well, anyway, from at least the reign of Shah Jahan
(ruled 1628-1658), for whom this palace in Delhi was built:

"High on the walls of the room [containing the Mogul Emperor's
Peacock Throne] was repeated an inscription in Persian: 'If there be
a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.'"

How's that for a location, location, location?  When the Mogul empire
was conquered in 1739 by Nader Shah (spellings vary, especially in
the 18th century), the jewels in this room were pillaged.  My source
gives a value of 87.6 million pounds sterling at that time, perhaps
90 billion pounds sterling today.  One jewel, the Kuh-e Nur
(Koh-i-Noor) diamond, found its way into Britain; others are still in
Tehran although the original throne itself was destroyed around the
time of Nader Shah's death in 1747.

Michael Axworthy, _The Sword of Persia, Nader Shah: From Tribal
Warrior to Conquering Tyrant_ (London, I.B. Tauris, 2006), pages 3 and 10.

For the fates of the Koh-i-Noor and the Peacock Throne and for Shah
Jahan, Wikipedia.

For the full inscription as quoted above, 5 hits on Google.  (But it
hangs up Google Books -- Server error.)

Joel

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