Chapter II: Coinage of the Sultans of Kashmīr56

Kashmīr was conquered about the year 1346 by a Swāt, named Shāh Mirzā, who, assuming the title of Shamsu-d-dīn, founded the first Muhammadan dynasty. The most famous of succeeding rulers were the iconoclast Sikandar (1393-1416) and the tolerant Zainu-l-’ābidīn (1420-70). From 1541 to 1551 Kashmīr was ruled by a Mug̱ẖal governor, Mirzā Ḥaidar, nominally in subjection to the Emperor Humāyūn. In 1561 the Chak dynasty succeeded and ruled till 1589, when Akbar annexed Kashmīr to the empire. Coins are known of sixteen sultans; there are also coins in the local style struck in the names of the Mug̱ẖals, Akbar and Humāyūn and of Islām Shāh Sūrī. The gold of these Sultans is extremely scarce, only about twelve specimens being known, including coins of Muḥammad Shāh, Ibrāhīm and Yūsuf. They are all of one type: on the obverse is the Kalima enclosed in a circle, the reverse inscription giving the king’s name and titles and the mint, _Kashmīr_, is divided into two parts by a double band running across the face of the coin. Most characteristic of the Kashmīr kingdom are the square silver pieces (Pl. IX, 9); size, shape and design suggest that the model for these may perhaps be found in the recent billon issues of Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak of Dehlī (1316-20). Following conservative Kashmīr traditions, the design once fixed remained unchanged till the downfall of the kingdom. The obverse gives the ruler’s name accompanied invariably by the title, “_The most mighty Sultan_,” and the date in figures; on the reverse appears the legend “_Struck in Kashmīr_,” in a square border set diagonally to the sides of the coin, and in the margins the date (usually illegible) in Arabic words. Dates on Kashmīr coins are frequently unreliable, they seem at times to have become conventional along with the style.

[56] The chronology of these Sultans, long in doubt, has now been fixed. Cf. _J.R.A.S._, 1918, p. 451.

The copper coinage follows in general the standard of the preceding Hindu kings and is very poorly executed. In the commonest type the obverse inscription is divided by a bar with a knot in the middle. Zainu-l-’ābidīn struck several kinds of copper; a large crude square type, also found in brass, may belong to an earlier reign. Of Ḥasan Shāh a lead coin has been recorded.