What to do at home? Mughal Islamic coins from India!

[WillieBoyd2]

I bought several Mughal India coins recently and spent some time attempting to read the Arabic text on them with the help of Richard Plant's book Arabic Coins and How to Read Them.

The Mughal Empire was a Sunni Islamic kingdom which lasted from AD 1526 to 1857.
Their territory included most of India.
Its capitol was Agra and briefly Fatehpur Sikri.
Agra was also known as Akbarabad and was the location of a mint.

The Muslim Kalima or statement of faith sometimes appears on Mughal coins in part or whole.
It is "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah".

The Rightly-Guided Caliphs of Sunni Islam are Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.
Their names sometimes appear on Mughal coins.

The KM number is from Krause Catalog of World Coins.

Jahangir AH 1014-1037 AD 1605-1627


Mughal Rupee Jahangir Rupee Jalnapur 1014-1017
Silver, 19 mm, 11:43 gm, KM 141.6
Mint: Jalnapur

Obverse: Three horizontal lines of text
Line 1: Ghazi (Fighter for Islam)
Line 2: Jahangir Badshah (Conqueror of the World, Emperor)
Line 3: Nur-ud-din (Light of religion)

Reverse: Two horizontal lines of text
Line 1: "There is no god but Allah"
Line 2: "Muhammad is his messenger" and mint name lower left

Shah Jahan AH 1037-1068 AD 1628-1658


Mughal Rupee Shah Jahan Agra AH 1038
Silver, 22 mm, 10:47 gm, KM 222.1
Mint: Agra

Obverse: Four horizontal lines of text
Line 1: Badshah Ghazi (Emperor and fighter for Islam)
Line 2: Muhammad Shah Jahan (King of the World)
Line 3: Shahab ud-Din (Star of the Faith)
Line 4: Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani Ahad
(Second Lord of the Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, First year of reign)

Reverse: Three horizontal lines of text
Line 1: "There is no god but Allah"
Line 2: "Muhammad is his messenger"
Line 3: Sanat Dar-i-Khilafa Agra (Struck at seat of capital Agra)

The year "1038" is on the left side. AH 1038 is around AD 1628


Mughal Rupee Shah Jahan Akbarabad AH 1039
Silver, 22 mm, 11:31 gm, KM 227.2
Mint: Akbarabad

Obverse: Four horizontal lines of text
Line 1: BadShah Ghazi (Emperor and and fighter for Islam)
Line 2: Al-din Muhammad Shah Jahan (Of the religion, King of the World)
Line 3: Sahib Qiran Sani (Second Lord of the Conjunction of two Planets Jupiter and Saturn)
Line 4: Zarb Akbarabad (Struck at Akbarabad)

Reverse: Circle with two lines inside it and four lines around it
Circle upper: "There is no god but Allah"
Circle lower: "Muhammad is his messenger"
Circle top: Caliph Abu Bakr
Circle right: Caliph Umar
Circle bottom: Caliph Uthman
Circle left: Caliph Ali

The year "1039" is on the lower right side of the circle. AH 1039 is around AD 1629


Mughal Rupee Shah Jahan Patna AH 1051
Silver, 21 mm, 11.38 gm, KM 235.20
Mint: Patna

Obverse: Square with two lines inside it and four lines around it
Square upper: Badshah Ghazi (Emperor and fighter for Islam)
Square lower: Shah Jahan (King of the World)
Square top: Shahab-ud-Din (Star of the Faith)
Square right: Muhammad Sahib (Lord Muhammad)
Square bottom: Qiran-e-Sani (Second Lord of the Conjunction of two Planets Jupiter and Saturn)
Square left: Zarb Patna (Struck at Patna mint, regnal year 15)

Reverse: Square with two lines inside it and four lines around it
Square upper: "There is no god but Allah"
Square lower: "Muhammad is his messenger"
Square top: Caliph Abu Bakr
Square right: Caliph Umar
Square bottom: Caliph Uthman
Square left: Caliph Ali

The coin has no year visible.
The reverse has the regnal year "15" below the long letter within the square.
It equates to AH 1037+15-1 or 1051 which is around AD 1641.

Shah Jahan had this building built for his wife:


Taj Mahal, Agra

Aurangzeb AH 1069-1119 AD 1659-1707

Aurangzeb was a devout Muslim and had the religious messages taken off coins as he did not want them to be handled by an infidel.
No "In God We Trust" for him.
He had 47 different mints putting out coinage.


Mughal Rupee Aurangzeb Akbarabad AH 1081
Silver, 22 mm, 11.36 gm, KM 298.1
Mint: Akbarabad

Obverse: Square with two lines inside it and four lines around it
Square upper: Badshah Ghazi (Emperor and fighter for Islam)
Square lower: Shah Alamgir (King Conqueror of the World)
Square left: Abul Muzaffar (Father of victory)
Square top: Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad (Preserver religion of Muhammad)
Square right: Aurangzeb (Ornament of the Throne)
Square bottom: Bahadur Sanat 1081 (Brave in the year struck 1081)

Reverse: Square with two lines inside it and four lines around it
Square upper: Akbarabad (Mint)
Square lower: Zarb (Struck at)
Square left: Julus (reign)
Square top: Maimanat (prosperity)
Square right: Manus (associated)
Square bottom: Sanat 14 (Year 14 of his reign associated with prosperity)

The year "1081" is on the lower left. AH 1081 is around AD 1671


Mughal Rupee Aurangzeb Rupee Akbarabad AH 1117
Silver, 22 mm, 11:38 gm, KM 300.6
Mint: Akbarabad

Obverse: Three horizontal lines of text
Line 1: Shah Aurangzeb Alamgir (King, Ornament of the Throne, Conqueror of the World)
Line 2: Munir Bedr Cho Zad (Like shining full moon)
Line 3: Sikkah Dar Jahan (Coin struck in the world)

Reverse: Three horizontal lines of text
Line 1: Manus (associated)
Line 2: Maimanat (prosperity)
Line 3: Zarb Akbarabad Sanat Julus 49
(Struck Akbarabad in year 49 of his reign associated with tranquil prosperity)

The coin has no year visible.
The reverse has the regnal year "49" is in the lower left.
It equates to AH 1069+49-1 or 1117 which is around AD 1705.

Aurangzeb had this building built for his wife:

[Figleaf]

Yes, that is a great way to spend your confinement. I did this a few decades ago, when I had some medical problems. I found that reading the coins is a skill that must be practiced continually, or you are thrown back to the beginning each time you have a new puzzle. However, several members of WoC have gone there and have based brilliant collections on the skill. Here are some more of my findings.

The key to identification is most often not the Mughal's name, but the mint. Cities may change name after their conquest or when the Mughal felt like it. Many early mints are ephemeral, they are likely "camp mints", mobile mints that travelled with the army, making soldiers' salaries on the go. The dates come in pairs: AH date and regnal year since the two overlap only partly, a year may have two date pairings plus errors. Dates may be written out, rather than in numbers and months may be added. There may be further variations in the text.

Mughal law gave the reigning ruler the right to pick a successor, not necessarily the eldest son. This led to regular bouts of civil war between claimants to the throne. Nevertheless, new designs could apparently be made in a matter of weeks. Thus, there are several Mughals whose coins are very hard to find. Beware of lookalike coins issued by states or alliances of states competing with Mughals.

We have developed some tools to help you identify and describe Mughal coins. You will find them on this board, listed on top:

Index of coins with an overlay: superb tools for deciphering texts.
List of the 12 months on Mughal coppers.
List of emperors with reign dates and how their names are found on their coins
Eastern copper mints of bengal in the reign of Aurangzeb

The index of all coins on the board is unfortunately incomplete.

Have fun,

Peter

[THCoins]

Great display and great work ! You are very brave to jump right into the Persian calligraphy. Form me that is still lots more complex to read than the more basic Arab script legends.

Anthony