Book: The Sultānate Period Coins of Bengal

[Md. Shariful Islam]

The focus of the volume is on conducting epigraphic study of the sultānate period coins of Bengal, analyzing the calligraphic styles used on these coins and documenting a few new numismatic findings of the period. Coins issued from Bengal during independent sultnāte as well as Delhi interludes have been considered and studied. A few known chronicles and a few new additions to the history of Bengal have been presented in this volume. For epigraphic analysis, as first step, the images of 77 coins have been converted into gray-scale drawings or into color drawings. Then the drawings have been segregated and decrypted with a view to make the illustrations decipherable to readers. One important additional focus of the volume, the calligraphic style of the inscriptions on the coins of Bengal Sultānate, may be noteworthy. The authors believe that this endeavor should have added value in the area of numismatics of Bengal Sultānate. The authors of the volume have critically followed previous works and deviations of opinions have been noted clearly.
Publisher: black N orange, Dhaka
P. 300, Matt artpaper, Hardcover, Color
Price: BDT 1750 / $ 30
Click here to see this and my other books.

[asm]

Congratulations.

Amit

[Md. Shariful Islam]

Congratulations.

Amit

Thanks a lot!

[THCoins]

Likewise my congratulations !

From your description i understand that your book also strongly focusses on educating the interesting reader and lowering the learning thresholds.
I applaud you for these efforts !

Anthony

[Md. Shariful Islam]

Likewise my congratulations !

Anthony

Thank you sir!

From your description i understand that your book also strongly focusses on educating the interesting reader and lowering the learning thresholds.

Anthony

Sir, that is what I tried in this book too! In our platform of WoC we have been taught to make people educated. I just carried forward the effort.

[Figleaf]

Great! Such publications help everybody. The authors have systematised their knowledge and checked what they thought they knew. Experts have another source. Beginners have a starting point. The casually interested will discover an important aspect to the common history of the people of Bangladesh.

It is a bonus that WoC has offered a framework for the authors, not only in its approach, but also with the network of collectors and experts that played a role. However, that bonus is one that is deeply satisfactory for me personally. This is an example of what can happen here if you want to contribute to numismatics.

Congratulations to the authors on realising this effort and to those who assisted in large and small ways for what they helped to achieve.

Peter

[THCoins]

Short review: The Sultanate Period Coins of Bengal.

Thanks to the authors I received a copy of this new book, written by Md. Shariful Islam, Mohammad Abdur Rahim and their associate collaborator Md. Mosharrof Hossain.
The aim of this book is stated clearly in the subtitle: "Focus on the Epigraphic Study, Calligraphy and History". First thing to do is congratulate the authors with this high quality work, which I think very much fullfills its goals.

There are relatively few contemporary written historic accounts written by medieval authors from within the Bengal region itself. In a concise introduction the authors stress the importance of coinage as a source of information for Bengal history in the Pre-Mughal Sultanate period. Quite some coins of the period reside in private collections. Many of these collectors are not acquainted enough with the Arab-Persian calligraphy to completely understand it's meaning. The focus on epigraphy and calligraphy of this book seeks to lower this hurdle. In doing so, this may also reveal new numismatic knowledge hitherto unknown because it is unseen in private collections.
The Bengal Sultanate coinage has several characteristics which set it apart from other Islamic coinage. First, Bengal was at the outskirts of the area of Islamic influence. This may have allowed a relatively large cultural influence on the coinage. Coin production in the Bengal region was decentralized. Though many mint-names are known from coins, that does not mean that we know the location and history of those places.
Reading of coin legends may be challenging. The authors give a short introduction on the different types of Arabic calligraphy which may be encountered. Often individual specimen show incomplete legends. Also many coins contain banker's and shroff marks. Though partly obscuring legends, these marks also provide historic information.
It is refreshing to see that the authors aknowledge that typical specimen of coinage in collections are not pristine museum examples. Also by combining multiple specimen, legends are expertly revealed to the interested reader. The catalog of specimen with full transcriptions of the legends forms the major part of the book. I can summarize this shortly; this is very beautifully done and will be a great help to readers seeking to study this coinage category more in-depth.
The printing and binding of the work are of good quality. Picture quality of coin specimen is fine, but the quality of the illustrations is brought to the top level thanks to the addition of the fully annotated line drawings. I can fully recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Islamic coinage.

Dr. A. Hilgevoord, MD, PhD.

The Sultanate Period Coins of Bengal
Focus on the epigraphic study, calligraphy and history.
Md. Shariful Islam, Mohammad Abdur Rahim
Black N Orange Publishers, Dhaka Bangladesh, 2020.

[Figleaf]

On 6th October, Md. Shariful Islam, one of the authors will speak in an online WoC event. Don't miss it, or the chance to ask questions and provide comments live.

Peter