The diamond came into the possession of the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate in the late 13th or early 14th centuries. According to one version, as stated in the Baburnama, Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji (1296-1316) of the Delhi Sultanate is credited with having acquired the jewel either in the late 13th or early 14th centuries. There are three different versions on how Sultan Ala-ud-din came to be the owner of the diamond. One version says that he took the jewel in 1295, one year before his accession to the throne as Sultan, from the Rajah of Malwa, whose family had owned it for many generations, after having led an expedition to the Deccan, conquering Malwa, and capturing a large amount of booty, which included the Koh-i-Noor diamond. One year after this in 1296, Ala-ud-din murdered his uncle Sultan Jalal-ud-din and assumed power as the new Sultan. This version is as recorded in Baburnama.
According to a second version, Sultan Ala-ud-din took possession of the Koh-i Noor, one year after his accession to the throne in 1297, when he attacked and subdued the Kingdom of Gujarat, taking a large booty that included the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
Yet another version attributes the acquiring of the diamond to Malik Kafur, the Lieutenant of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji, who was sent on a plundering expedition to the south in 1308, which led to the capture of Warangal, the capital of Kakatiya Kings, situated in Northern Andhra Pradesh. Malik Kafur also occupied Madura, in the extreme south, and returned to Delhi in 1311, laden with spoils of war, which may have included the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
A second version of the early history of the diamond gives the credit of acquiring the stone to Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq Shah I, the Ist Sultan of the Tughluq Dynasty, after the collapse of the Khalji Dynasty in 1320 A.D. It is said that Ghiyas-ud-din sent his son Ulugh Khan in 1323 A.D. to defeat the Kakatiya King Prataparudra based in Warangal. Ulugh Khan succeeded in capturing Warangal in his second attempt, and subsequently looted and plundered the city. Large quantities of gold, diamonds, pearls, and ivory were carried away as spoils of war to Delhi, on elephants and camels. The Koh-i-Noor diamond was believed to be part of the bounty.
Considering the above versions of the early history of the diamond, it appears that the stone came into the possession of the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate in the late 13th or early 14th century. Subsequently the stone had passed through the hands of successive rulers of the Delhi Sultanate for almost 200 years, until finally it came into the possession of Babur, the first Mogul emperor, in 1526, after the defeat of the Lodi dynasty, the last ruling family of the Delhi Sultanate.
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