Shaybanids / Dengi struck at time of Muhammad Shaybani, mint Zamin Dawar 913 AH

[saro]

22 x 25 mm / 4,90 g
I read it as : "zarb dengi Zamin Dawar ضرب دنگی زمین داور  " followed by a date with only 3 digits : "131"
Zamin Dawar is located in Helmand valley, on the way from Qandahar to Herat.

Despite its legible legend this coin is mysterious for me for three reasons
- Zamin Dawar isn't known as 18 or 19th c. mint.
- the dengi (  دنگی ) isn't an usual afghan denomination : the "Danki / Dangi" ( with letter « alif » between  D and N  ) is known for some Central Asian Shaybanids or timurids coins, but here we have the persian transcription of the russian « dengi » : «  денги     »
- the troncated date unfortunately can't give an accurate period of minting. (131x / 1301 / 1131  )

Hereafter what is said on Zamindawar :
ZAMINDAWAR, a district of Afghanistan, situated on the right bank of the Helmund river to the N.W. of Kandahar, bordering the road which leads from Kandahar to Herat via Farah. Zamindawar is a district of hills, and of wide, well populated, and fertile valleys watered by important affluents of the Helmund. The principal town is Musa Kala, which stands on the banks of a river of the same name, about 60 m. N. of Girishk. The whole of this region is a well-known hotbed of fanaticism, the headquarters of the Achakzais, the most aggressive of all Durani tribes. It was from Zamindawar that much of the strength of the force which besieged Kandahar under Ayub Khan in 1880 was derived; and it was the Zamin dawar contingent of tribesmen who so nearly defeated Sir Donald Stewart's force at Ahmad Khel previously. The control of Zamindawar may be regarded as the key to the position for safeguarding the route between Herat and Kandahar.

[THCoins]

Purely based on the flan shape and the geometric pattern, the Shaybanids would also be my first association.

[saro]

Thank you Anthony, without this puzzling fragment of date, I would have said too that this coin could be from 9-10th c. AH

[aws22]

Dear Saro, following Anthony's comment, attached are photos of two Shaybanid copper dinars with similar geometric patern to your coin. The first is dated 911 AH.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shaybanid-Copper-dinar-Uzbekistan-Central-Asia-911-AH-/124639102836

Maythem

[saro]

Thank you Maythem, the style is indeed very similar.
With this new lighting, I wonder now if the last digit of the date couldn't be a roughly written "9" belonging to a retrograde date  131 ==> 139 ==> 931 

[aws22]

Thank you Saro, it could be " 913 ۹۱۳ ", the digit "9" could be on far left. In this case the coin belongs to the ruler:
Afghanistan, Shaybanids, Muhammad Shaybani ibn Shah Budaq ibn Abu'l-Khayr (AH 907-916/1501-1510 AD)

Maythem

[andyg]

for a few seconds I thought I'd found it;
https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=221163

[saro]

for a few seconds I thought I'd found it;
https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=221163

Thank you Andyg there is some similitude but the mint on mine isn't Isfarayin...

it could be " 913 ۹۱۳ ", the digit "9" could be on far left. In this case the coin belongs to the ruler:
Afghanistan, Shaybanids, Muhammad Shaybani ibn Shah Budaq ibn Abu'l-Khayr (AH 907-916/1501-1510 AD)

Maythem !! thank you so much, you have good eyes.
I haden't thought to this possibility ! with the coin in hands, I can confirm that you are right:with a good light, this 1st digit 9 is well present
And what I took for the last digit "1" belongs to the end of the letter  "i" of "dengi".

No doubt now that this is a "dengi" falus of  Muhammad Shaybani ibn Shah Budaq ibn Abu'l-Khayr;
I am not specialist of Shaybanids coinage but Zamin Dawar mint seems to be scarce ?

[Figleaf]

As for the word dengi, in Russian, деньги is not only a coin, it is also the word for money, like in French, je n'ai plus de sous can refer to a copper coin or to money. The word may just have been borrowed from the Russian without referring to a copper coin of a specific weight and value.

Peter

[saro]

it is also the word for money, like in French, je n'ai plus de sous can refer to a copper coin or to money.

Yes Peter ! it's boring when you have no more money... curiously in France it is popular to say too "je n'ai plus de flouze", from the arabic word "fulus", a memory of the French presence in Maghreb...

According to the Shaybanid dengi : 913 AH was 3 years before the safavid Isma'il Shah I killed Muhammad Shaybani at the battle of Merv (attached picture) , which put an end to the shaybanids control over a wide part of Afghan territories, soon left to persian and mughals.

[aws22]

Thank you Saro for showing this lovely painting. Herat was occupied by Shaybanids of Transoxania from (AH 912-922/1506-1516 AD), and in late (AH 916/1510 AD) the Safavid Shah Isma'il I besieged Shaybani in Merv (located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan) and killed Muḥammad Shaybani.

Maythem