ODD TRUTHS: ALEXANDER M. JACOB

In 1891, Alexander M. Jacob made history when he sold the largest diamond the world had ever seen to the richest man on the Indian subcontinent, Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad. After the sale, Jacob was accused of fraud and taken to court in Calcutta. The subsequent trials irreparably damaged his reputation and his wallet. He spent his final years in shame, a world away from his former life as a spymaster and amateur occultist.

John Zubryzcki’s book, The Mysterious Mr Jacob: Diamond Merchant, Magician and Spy provides the first in-depth look at the career of the spy-salesman. We caught up with John to learn more about Jacob’s action-packed life.

The Custodian: What first got you interested in Alexander M. Jacob?

John Zubrzycki: I was writing a book on Mukarram Jah, the last Nizam of the Indian princely state of Hyderabad — a rather eccentric fellow who ended up losing the family fortune on a sheep station in Western Australia. Jacob tried to sell the 184-carat Imperial Diamond to Jah’s grandfather, Osman Ali Khan. It was an incredibly audacious deal worth around 50 million pounds in today’s money. It ended badly with Jacob being taken to court for criminal misappropriation. I was intrigued by Jacob’s character — nobody really knew where he came from or what happened to him, yet he was one of the most famous and controversial figures in late 19th century India. It was said that going to Simla, (the summer capital of the Raj), without seeing Jacob was like going to India without seeing the Taj Mahal.

C: Jacob’s mostly famous for the tragic diamond affair, but what other kinds of activities was he involved in? How’d he get into the jewellery business?

J: Jacob made his fortune by trading in jewellery and antiques. We can’t be sure about every aspect of his life because he did his best to cover his tracks but it seems certain that he arrived penniless in India in about 1865. A mix of luck and determination saw him selling semi-precious stones in the courts of India’s princes and then to the servants of the Raj. He also started dabbling in magic — mainly sleight of hand, fortune telling etc — which went down well in India’s superstitious rulers. He also used his incredibly wide network of contacts to do some spying for the British. By the time he moved to Simla in the 1870s he was being feted and sought after by the highest echelons of the Raj.

C: Would you say that his experiences as an Ottoman slave shaped the way he developed his business connections and spying techniques?

J: He liked to tell the story of being sold into slavery. It may have happened as boys were taken by Christian families to replenish the ranks of the Janissaries, the Sultan’s elite troops. In some cases Christians gave up their sons to give them a better chance in life. But more than likely it was not true. Jacob was born in Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey and would have made his way to India through modern day Iraq, possibly Iran and no doubt picked up Arabic and Persian on the way. He demonstrated an adventurous spirit from an early age and was highly competitive by nature.

C: Apparently Jacob had Jewish ancestry, lived in a mostly Muslim culture and spoke Arabic, and apparently dabbled in Hermetic magic and mysticism. At the time, the Helena Blavatsky-led Theosophy movement was known for its religious pluralism. Is there any evidence that he participated in Simla Theosophical groups?

J: Jacob was variously described as a ‘pseudo-Arabic genius’ living in Simla in a Haroun al-Rachid setting, ‘a pure-blooded Persian’, an Armenian, a Greek, a Pole, an Italian, a Turk, a Gypsy or, more generally, ‘as belonging to some nationality of the mysterious East’. The Jewish label stuck because of his name which was actually an anglicised version of Yakub. In reality he was a Syrian Christian born in today’s Turkey. He dabbled in Hermetic magic and mysticism but his actual skills as a magician were hotly debated. He never joined the Theosophical Society but met Blavatsky when she visited Simla in 1880. They disliked each other. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Simla.

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C: Jacob was an inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s character, Lurgan Sahib in Kim. Are there any other famous people who reference him?

J: At least four other novelists besides Kipling modelled their main characters on Jacob, including the writer of a series of sequels to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The first writer to feature him was Francis Marion Crawford who wrote Mr Isaacs in 1881. It was the first occult thriller set in India — the Da Vinci Code of its day and was loosely based on Jacob’s early life. Crawford met him in Simla and the book launched Crawford’s career as one of the most successful American novelists of the late 19th century.

C: It’s clear that his adventures rivalled those of Hollywood actions heroes like Indiana Jones and James Bond–so why do you think he’s become such an obscure figure?

J: It’s true his life was the stuff of legend, but he did his best to hide the real story of his life. If he hadn’t been taken to court by the Nizam over the Imperial Diamond, many of the details might have never come out. He clearly annoyed the British who resented the access he had to India’s princes and never really knew where his loyalties lay. He also disappeared into obscurity, ending up almost penniless and friendless in Bombay. Histories tend to focus on heroes. Jacob was ultimately a tragic figure.

C: What other projects are you working on? Any ties to your research on Jacob?

J: I’m researching the links between Indian and Western stage magic in the 19th and early 20th centuries as part of a doctoral thesis at the University of New South Wales. It was certainly inspired by what I read about Indian magic when researching the book on Jacob.

For more on John’s research, check out his website.

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