Coinage of the Delhi Sultanates

I picked up two coins that are outside of my expertise, but they have a certain charm on account of their size, fineness, elegant lettering, and of course history.

The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic kingdom that spanned parts of the Indian subcontinent from AD 1206-1526. Five dynasties ruled over this period: Mamluk (1206-1290), Khilji (1290-1320), Tughlaq (1320-1414), Sayyid (1414-1451) and Afghan Lodi (1451-1526).



These two small silver coins come at the juncture of the Khilji and Tughlaq Dynasties. Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah Khilji was the third and last ruler of the Khilji dynasty. At the age of 18 he was appointed regent over his younger brother, who was 6, but he blinded his brother and took the throne for himself. It is said that he was the weakest ruler of the dynasty, but released thousands of prisoners and abolished all taxes, so he must have been quite popular with certain segments of the population. He was murdered by the prominent general Khusro Khan.

This coin is of very good metal for the type, which are typically billon-ish to the point of showing no silver. I can’t vouch for the attribution, but the dealer that sold me the coins is reasonably well-versed in Eastern numismatics. I’m slogging my way through some of the Arabic alphabet at the moment, but it’s slow going, and I’m not anywhere near being able to read it. If anyone can help, that would be much appreciated...



Delhi Sultanates, Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah Khilji, AD 1316-1320
Billon 4-Ghani, 13x15mm, 3.7g.

After Khusro Khan assassinated Mubarak, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq in turn defeated him to establish the Tughluq Dynasty. Tughluq evidently rose to power from humble origins, successfully staved off the Mongols a number of times, and won a Bengalese civil war. Unfortunately, the wooden pavilion constructed for his reception in Afghanpur collapsed, killing the king and his son. Was it mediocre carpentry or a plot by his heir apparent? Enquiring minds want to know.



Delhi Sultanates, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, AD 1320-1325
Billon 4-Ghani, 15mm, 3.8g.
Obv.: al-sultan al-ghazi ghiyath al-dunya wa'l din.
Rev.: abu'l muzaffar tughlug shah al-sultan.

Tughluq’s mausoleum in Delhi stands to this day...



If you’ve got any coins of the Delhi Sultanates, please post them!

 

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i really have trouble with the islmaic indian coins...i just can't tell them apart.

this is a modern coin, but it was stuck...and looks just like something that would have been minted 400 years before it was. i had help attributing this one, i never would have figured it out.



Indian Prinecly States, Kutch, AE Dhinglo. 1719-1752
Deslji II, 20 mm, 10.6 g

 

The 4-Gani square is nice. They unfortunately always miss part of the legend.
But is is supposed to read:
Left pic:
Kalifath Allah / Mubarak Shah As-Sultan / bin as-Sultan
Right Pic:
Al-iman al-a / 'zam Qubt ud-du / niya wa ud din.

For reference: Tye#424 , Goron&Goenka D247. Yours likely minted 719AH.

 

I have to stop buying books and start reading them. I completely forgot I had a copy of Tye's Jitals. I actually have a reference for these coins. I quote the paragraph on p. 78 concerning Mubarak, because it's interesting...

Mubarak, 1316-20 AD, introduced many innovations at the mint. He created 44 different denominations, comprising more than 70 types in just a four year reign. Examples of many denominations have not survived, but we have the account of Pheru, his mint master, to confirm the matter. The largest was the gold 200 tola piece (c. 2.18 kg in weight), the smallest the copper Visva, at a little under a gram. Four denominations were represented by round coins: the Chhagani (6-gani), 423, the Chaugani (4-gani), 425-28, and the Dugani, (2-gani), probably 429, the scarcest. The square coins at jital weight were the Athagani (8-gani), 422, and a further variety of Chaugani 424. Pheru gives us very complete accounts of the composition of these coins, from which it is clear that their declared value exceeded their silver value by up to 20%, but varied in some issues. The discrepancy was more than can be accounted for by the cost of the copper and extra labour. Again we have sound historical evidence of a significant fiduciary element to the value of the issue, which depended in part upon a government stamp to fix its value. A square paika, 430, was struck, but apparently with little enthusiasm, few have survived.

Great analysis. I have the obverse and reverse switched according to Tye, so here is a new pic with the full attribution...



Delhi Sultanates, Qutb-ud-din Mubarak Shah Khilji, AD 1316-1320
AR Chaugani, 13x15mm, 3.7g, Delhi mint, 719 AH.
Obv.: Al-iman al-a / 'zam Qubt ud-du / niya wa ud din.
Rev.: Kalifath Allah / Mubarak Shah As-Sultan / bin as-Sultan.
Reference: Tye Jitals, 424, p. 78.

 

Did you visit page 155 where Tye 424 is shown again with some additional information? Some numbers benefit greatly from going to the 'rest of the story' section but 424 adds little since Tye mentions the coin is known from three dates but only illustrates one and doe not tell which one. I assume Tye assumes I read Arabic. My bad. Compare on page 154 the great expansion of Tye 419 which shows eleven dates in Hindu characters which are labels (I guess I am not expected to read Hindu characters?). Can you guess why I selected this off center specimen? Well centered coins may not be as easy to date. This AH 700 is easy because it is one he shows.


This one is a AH698, I believe, because it seems to have a similar 69 from his 699 and an 8 from his 708.


OK, who wants a year date set of these coins? I have two to demonstrate how the dates work but I am not in the market for the rest of Al Ud Din Muhammed's coins. I do not have a Qutb-ud-din Mubarak.

 

Great stuff Doug. Yes, I did visit page 155. It would seem my date is on the fuzzy side so I'm rather taking THCoin's conjecture at AH 719. Going back to page 79, however, concerning the second coin, Tye writes...

The subsequent Sultan Tughluq, 1320-25 AD also struck the 6-gani and 2-gani. During his reign he adopted the practice of making both to a similar design, but giving the 6-gani a double ring on the obverse for quick recognition, 436.

It is therefore obvious that my second coin is not a 6-gani of Tughluq. I'll see if I can match to anything else in Tye.

 

Did you notice that Tug had four denominations that all weighed about the same and were the same diameter BUT each had different fineness and design clues. Your 4 gani was better billon that the 2 and less than the 6. The AE paika had no silver but all three were in the mid 3g range. Tye says the 4 gani is most common. Isn't that the way it always is? Again my Arabic illiteracy makes me unable to rea the date if it is on flan. Note that Tye lists dates that are not included in the reign (with 'sic') but I have no idea if he he is commenting on the readings of other scholars or if the king issued postdated coins from three years before he was in power. I would like to see a clear 715 but since I couldn't read it, I suppose that is a silly wish. Is the date the line on yours at bottom (left side) that is 90% off flan? I find these issues embarrassing because I don't know where to look for what!

 

You're good Doug! Thank you, lol. So it IS 4-gani, Tye 437. I confused the denominations in my head. Also, the style of the lettering on Tye's coin is different enough from mine to have thrown me off - more loopy, less angular. Yes, I suppose my date is mostly off flan. I really need to learn to read Arabic, at least well enough for the coins, but that's a long, slow project.

 

This. Right there. This is why I can't muster up enthusiasm for learning about these coins. It's exasperating! That, and it's all foreign writing without any (or many) recognizable devices.

If I had any familial or social ties to the area I'd probably feel differently about them.

 

According to Tye I had the second coin's sides switched as well. Here is the corrected pic with full attribution...



Delhi Sultanates, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, AD 1320-1325
Billon 4-Ghani, 15mm, 3.8g, Delhi mint.
Obv.: al-sultan al-ghazi / Ghiyath ud-duniya /wa ud-din.
Rev.: abu'l-muzaffar / Tughlug shah / as-sultan. [date off flan]
Reference: Tye Jitals 437.

It is indeed exasperating! I'm done with Arabic. Time for something a bit more relaxing, like Chinese.

I just got this lovely, large 10 Cash of emperor Hui Zhong with beautiful characters in Li script. I think one of them means chillax.

 

Noooo! I prefer Devanagari. Remember the good old days when something hard to understand could be written off as "Its Greek to me."? That line did not work on my Greek professor in college either. I suppose if we had to hold a contest for coins I don't want to read I'd have to include a few things like the Western Satraps, too.
Rudrasimha, I hope.

Maybe the best coins really are anepigraphic.

 

I thought Greek was challenging when I first started collecting ancients. I stand corrected. But like all things, you learn one or two little factoids a day and it eventually adds up. These Delhi Sultanate coins have opened up a new field for me, and I got a chance to finally use Tye, so it's been a good day of coining.

 

Sogdiana
silk road
700-800 CE
AE Cash
Tamga Samitan
RARE

John... perhaps you can read this script... Even @Ancientnoob cannot read it...

 

Sorry, it's all Greek to me.

 

You all need to stop getting me interested in yet another area of ancient coinage!!!

 

I think @Pellinore is your best hope.

 

@medoraman is also a Sogdian enthusiast

 

I have this one as Ramchitak c.700 AD but when I bought it I did not realize it was not uniface. The reverse is just worn off. The sad part is, I have seen worse examples.

 

Go with the flow. There are hundreds of kingdoms and empires awaiting your discovery, with many interesting coins waiting to be added to your collection.

 

Nice coins/ great historical write ups!

Here are a couple of my Dehli coins...

AV Tanka ND Firuz III bin Tughluq /Dehli Mint/ 1351-88 photo 2
AV Tanka AH 742 Dehli Mint Mohammed III bin Tughluq 1324-51 photo 1