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Mog-2378m. |
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Photo from
Bhandare, who wrote: In his article ‘The
Gulkanda Rupees of Shah Jahan’ (chapter 20, pp.272-274, ed. Sanjay Garg), S.
H. Hodivala presented a case for coins in the name of Shah Jahan being struck
in the year AH1045 on the basis of two letters mentioned in the ‘Badshahnama’
of Abdul Hamid Lahori, Written in the “most florid and artificial style
affected by cultured Persians in official correspondence”, in which Qutb
ul-Mulk (the Mughals refused to call
him ‘Qutb Shah’) promises that he will have the Khutba read in the Emperor’s
name and: 'paiwastah bar zar surkh wa safed sikkeh-i-mubarak' - "On red money
and the white (gold and silver) will always be stamped with the auspicious
coin-legend, which has been engraved and sent to me from the Court which is
the Asylum of the Universe”. This also finds mention in the treaty concluded between the two rulers in
AH1045, where Shahjahan acknowledges the fact that “…[Qutb ul-Mulk] has promised that the faces of dirhams and dinars
(silver and gold coins) shall be adorned with our auspicious coin-legend and
that in all parts of his kingdom… money will be stamped with our auspicious
name”. The background of this treaty was the renewed nuisance posed by Shahaji
Bhonsle, who had resurrected the Nizamshahi sultanate by elevating a boy to a
putative ‘throne’. The Emperor therefore sent written commands to the Sultans
of Golkonda and Bijapur to abstain from supporting Shahaji and his allies and
to pay tributes regularly in recognition of Mughal suzerainty. Abdullah, the
Sultan of Golkonda had already felt the Mughal wrath in 1629 and unable to
resist the Mughal might, quietly acquiesced to these demands. When Abd
al-Latif the Mughal envoy approached Golkonda, “Sultan Qutb ul-Mulk came
forth 5 kos to receive him and conducted him to the city in great honour. He
had the Khutba read aloud in the Emperor’s name; he several times attended
when it was being read and bestowed gifts upon the reader, and he had coins
struck in the Emperor’s name and sent them to the Court” (quoted from
Badshahnama). The interesting mention here is that Qutb ul-Mulk says that the
“auspicious coin legend” had been “sent to him from the Court”. This is a
clear reference that the dies were engraved in a Mughal atelier and then sent
to the Qutbshahi capital. This is in accordance with the good standards of
calligraphy evident on this coin. Hodivala himself was not aware of a coin
struck in AH1045, but this coin proves him right! |