(A.H. 602-725)
The gold coins which Muḥammad bin Sām struck in imitation of the issues
of the Hindu kings of Kanauj with the goddess Lakshmī on the obverse,
are, except for the earliest gold issue of Ḥaidar ’Alī of Mysore,
without a parallel in Muhammadan history. He apparently struck no
silver for his Indian dominions; in fact, two centuries of invasion had
so impoverished the country that for forty years the currency consisted
almost entirely of copper and billon: hardly any gold appears to have
been struck, and silver coins of the earlier Sultans are scarce. The
third Sultan, Altamsh[49] (1211-1236), however, issued several types of
the silver tankah (Pl. VIII, 2), the earliest of which has a portrait
of the king on horseback on the obverse. The latest type bears witness
to the diploma of investiture he had received in 1228 from the Khalif
of Bag̱ẖdād, Al-Mustanṣir. The inscriptions run as follows: on the
obverse, “_In the reign of the Imām Al-Mustanṣir, the commander of the
faithful_,” and on the reverse, “_The mighty Sultan Shamsu-d-dunyā
wā-d-dīn, the father of the victorious, Sultan Altamsh_.” Both
legends are enclosed in circles, leaving circular margins in which
are inscribed the name of the mint and the date in Arabic. This type
was followed, sometimes with slight variations, by seven succeeding
Sultans, and although the Khalif actually died in 1242, the words, “_in
the reign of_,” were not dropped until the time of G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn
Balban (1266-1286). Gold, though minted by ’Alāu-d-dīn Mas’ūd,
Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd, Balban and Jalālu-d-dīn Ḵẖ̱iljī, was not common
until ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad (1296-1316) had enriched his treasury
by conquests in Southern India. These gold coins (Pl. VIII, 5) are
replicas of the silver in weight and design. Divisional pieces of the
silver tankah are extremely rare. ’Alāu-d-dīn, whose silver issues are
very plentiful, changed the design by dropping the name of the Khalif
from the obverse and substituting the self-laudatory titles, “_The
second Alexander, the right hand of the Khalifate_”; at the same time
he confined the marginal inscription to the obverse. His successor,
Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak, whose issues are in some respects the finest of
the whole series, employed the old Indian square shape[50] for some of
his gold, silver and billon. On his coins appear the even more arrogant
titles, “_The supreme head of Islām, the Khalif of the Lord of heaven
and earth_.” G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Tug̱ẖlaq was the first Indian sovereign
to use the title _G̱ẖ̱āzī_, “Champion of the faith.”
[49] The correct form of the Sultan’s name is Īltutmish; Altamsh is a
popular corruption.
[50] Two gold coins of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad are the earliest known
Muhammadan coins of this shape. Cf. _Num. Chron._, 1921, p. 345.
Among the greatest rarities of this period are the silver tankahs
of two _rois fainéants_, Shamsu-d-dīn Kaiyūmars̤, the infant son of
Mu’izzu-d-dīn Kaiqubād (1287-1290), and Shihābu-d-dīn ’Umar, brother of
Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak, who each occupied the throne only a few months.
Most of the coins struck in billon by these early Sultans, including
Muḥammad of G̱ẖ̱or, are practically uniform in size and weight (about
56 grains), the difference in value depending upon the proportions in
which the two metals were mixed in them. This question has not yet been
fully investigated, but it is probable that different denominations
were marked by different types.[51] The drawback to such a coinage
lay, as already noted, in the impossibility of obtaining uniformity
in coins of the same denomination, and in the consequent liability to
abuse. Numerous varieties were struck. The Indian type known as the
_Dehlīwāla_, with the humped bull and the sovereign’s name in Nāgarī
on the reverse, and the Dehlī Chauhan type of horseman on the obverse,
lasted till the reign of ’Alāu-d-dīn Mas’ūd (1241-1246); on some coins
of this class Altamsh’s name is associated with that of Chāhada-deva
of Narwar. Another type, with the Horseman obverse and the Sultan’s
name and titles in Arabic on the reverse (Pl. VII, 3), survived till
Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd’s reign,[52] when it was replaced by coins with a
similar reverse, but, on the obverse, the king’s name in Arabic appears
in a circle surrounded by his titles in Nāgarī (Pl. VIII, 4). On the
commonest type of the later Sultans Arabic legends are in parallel
lines on both obverse and reverse. The billon coins of ’Alāu-d-dīn
Muḥammad are the first to bear dates. Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak employs a
number of special types, including those square in shape (Pl. VIII,
6). Billon coins, mostly of the Bull and Horseman type, were also
struck by a number of foreigners who invaded Western India during the
thirteenth century. The most important of these was the fugitive king
of Ḵẖ̱wārizm Jalālu-d-dīn Mang-barnī.
[51] _J.A.S.B._, N.S., XXXV, p. 25.
[52] A single specimen is known of the reign of Balban.
The earliest copper of this period is small and insignificant. Some
coins, as well as a few billon pieces, bear the inscription _’adl_,
which may mean simply “legal,” _i.e._ currency (Pl. VIII, 1). Balban
introduced a type with the Sultan’s name and titles divided between
obverse and reverse. All copper is dateless.
The mint names inscribed on the coins of these Sultans sometimes afford
valuable historical evidence of the extent of their dominions. The
general term, _Bilādu-l-hind_, “The Cities of Hind,” is the first to
appear, on the silver of Altamsh. _Dehlī_ is found on the same king’s
billon and copper. _Lakhnautī_, the modern Gaur in Bengal, also occurs
for the first time during this reign; _Sult̤ānpūr_, a town on the Beas
in the Panjāb, on a silver tankah of Balban; _Dāru-l-islām_, “The seat
of Islam” (possibly an ecclesiastical mint in old Dehlī); and _Qila
Deogīr_ on the gold and silver of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad; while Qut̤bābād
is probably Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak’s designation for Deogīr.