Balas Ruby
Trade name for Red Spinel.
Baroque
May apply to certain gemstones or pearls. Either a gemstone or pearl with an irregular shape, such as Tumbled Stones or Baroque Pearls.
Balas Ruby, Pomegranate ruby and Ruby spinel.
Timur Ruby and Black Prince's Ruby
Sapphire ...
Balas Ruby
An historical name for spinel, which referred to gems from the Kuh-i-Lal mine in Badakhshan in present-day Tajikistan
Cobalt Blue Spinel ...
The term "Balas Ruby" is an old misnomer that was once used for red spinel, and is not ruby at all.
Balas ruby ... see spinel
Banded agate...see quartz..chalcedony Barite ...
Crystallography: orthorhombic
Colors: colorless, yellow, red, green, black
Hardness: 2.5 - 3.5
Specific gravity: 4.48
Occurrence: med. to low temp.
From the form Balakhsh the Balas Ruby got its name. As Ibn Batuta says: “The Mountains of Badakhshan have given their name to the Badakhshi Ruby, vulgarly called Al Balaksh.
Pink stones are yielded by (1) corundum (pink sapphire), (2) spinel (balas ruby), (3) tourmaline (rubellite), (4) true topaz (almost always artificially altered), (5) beryl (morganite), (6) spodumene (kunzite), and (7) quartz (rose-quartz).
Medical properties by 9th century scientist Al Biruni
Spinel (Balas Ruby) as discussed by Streeter
External Sources:
History of Ruby, Spinel in Badakshan, Afghanistan. (by world's leading expert Dick Hughes) ...
Originally mined along the Oxus River in north-eastern Afghanistan, these early "Badakhshan" spinels (aka Balas ruby) are found in the Crown Jewel collections of Persia (Iran), Russia, and Great Britain.
Some varieties include: Balas ruby (red spinel), Almandine spinel (purple-red), Rubicelle (orange), Sapphire spinel (blue), Ghanospinel (blue), Chlorspinel (green). Spinel is also laboratory synthesized.
The name spinel is believed to derive from the Latin word, spina, meaning “thorn,' perhaps in allusion to the pointed shape typical of spinel octahedra. In the past, spinel has been referred to as “balas ruby', ...
 See also: Ruby, Stone, Color, Sapphire, Jewel
  
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