Sapphire
Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide (α-Al2O3) with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon.
The name sapphire is derived via the Latin sapphirus from the Greek sappheiros (σάπφειρος), which referred to lapis lazuli. It is typically blue, but natural "fancy" sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, and green colors; "parti sapphires" show two or more colors. Red corundum stones also occur, but are called rubies rather than sapphires.
The sapphire is the birthstone of September.
Global deposits
Significant sapphire deposits are found in Australia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, China (Shandong), Colombia, Ethiopia, India Jammu and Kashmir(Padder, Kishtwar), Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United States (Montana) and Vietnam.
Every sapphire mine produces a wide range of quality, and origin is not a guarantee of quality. For sapphire, Jammu and Kashmir receives the highest premium, although Burma, Sri Lanka, and Madagascar also produce large quantities of fine quality gems.
Use
Synthetic sapphire – sometimes referred to as sapphire glass – is commonly used as a window material, because it is both highly transparent to wavelengths of light between 150 nm (UV) and 5500 nm (IR) (the visible spectrum extends about 380 nm to 750 nm[58]), and extraordinarily scratch-resistant. In 2014 Apple consumed "one-fourth of the world’s supply of sapphire to cover the iPhone’s camera lens and fingerprint reader."
Along with zirconia and aluminum oxynitride, synthetic sapphire is used for shatter-resistant windows in armored vehicles and various military body armor suits, in association with composites.
Spiritual beliefs
A traditional Hindu belief holds that the sapphire causes the planet Saturn (Shani) to be favorable to the wearer.
In the hierarchy of angels, sapphire is the stone of the Seraphim choir. It is also associated with the angel Barchiel.
The Kabbalistic grimoire, Sefer Raziel HaMalakh was said to be inscribed on sapphire plates which were then handed to Adam by Metatron. A similar legend says the same plates were given to Noah before the flood.
An Italian superstition holds that sapphires are amulets against eye problems, and melancholy. Mary, Queen of Scots, owned a medicinal sapphire worn as a pendant to rub sore eyes.
Christianity
In the Book of Revelation, sapphire is among the foundation stones of the Holy Jerusalem.
Pope Innocent III decreed that rings of bishops should be made of pure gold, set with an unengraved sapphire, as possessing the virtues and qualities essential to its dignified position as a seal of secrets, for there be many things "that a priest conceals from the senses of the vulgar and less intelligent; which he keeps locked up as it were under seal."