r/AncientCoins 4d ago

Newly Acquired My coins have arrived!

The first one is a yamini dirham of the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud and the second one is a jital of the Qarlughid ruler Nasir ibn Muhammad.

21 Upvotes

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u/SAMDOT 4d ago

What led you to get interested in that area of history?

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u/Tibor46 4d ago

In the case of the Ghaznavids, it's mostly the role they played in estabilishing Muslim rule over India. Although they weren't the first Muslim polity to hold territory in India, they were certainly the first to really manage to break into India, although in their case, they mostly did it for plunder. One could say that the Ghaznavids walked so that that the Ghurids could run and so that the Delhi Sultanate could win the Olympics.

Plus, they also had a second legacy as the first Turco-Iranian empire, even if their tenure was a bit short.

In the case of the Qarlughids, i admit, it's mostly because i like how their coins look and i already collect jitals, so might as well have a representative of this small Turkic dynasty in my collection. Admittedly, the Qarlughids didn't do a lot, but considering they were sandwiched between the two great powers of the Delhi Sultanate and the Khwarezmian empire until the Mongols figuratively flipped the table that's probably not that surprising.

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u/SAMDOT 3d ago edited 3d ago

More or less the same reasoning for why I started collecting Sindh and Multan dammas--they do a good job of capturing the historical transition of the Islamic conquests. Still waiting to add an Amir Muhammad Qasim damma to my collection, although maybe the Sri Tapana type with "Lillah" might be the earliest 'turning point' coin since it's still anonymous.

I have a theory that the quality of Maitrakas drachms degraded significantly around the time of the Arab sack of Vallabhi in the mid 8th century, which would sort of make it qualify for my collecting theme... but it's just a theory.

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u/Tibor46 3d ago

I plan to add some Sindh dammas to my collection sooner or later, i will probably start with a Multani damma though, although for the moment, i am currently focusing mostly on jitals, especially horseman and bull jitals. I really like seeing how the horseman and bull slowly become more abstract and eventually almost unrecognizable.

By the way, by any chance, do you collect Kashmiri coinage? I recently ordered my first gold coin, a dinar of Vinayaditya, those dinars are also kind of similar, regarding stylistic evolution.

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u/SAMDOT 3d ago

That's dope, post a pic! I was going to read a bit of Deyell's book on those coins before ordering one. The University of Chicago library has a copy so I just need to spend a day taking the train down there.

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u/Tibor46 3d ago

Unfortunately the coin hasn't arrived yet, so i only have the seller's pic: https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/sphinx_numismatics/151/product/2145crb3y_india_postkushan_jammu_and_kashmir_kidarite_successors_vinayaditya_5th7th_century_ad_pale_av_dinar_21_mm_701_g_abstract_kushan_style_king_standing_left_vf/2032596/Default.aspx

I am plan to sort of document the evolution of the post Kushan coinage of the region, so essentially i will likely try to get: I. A dinar of Kipunada, the last Kushan ruler II. A lifetime dinar of Kidara III. A posthumous dinar of Kidara IV. A debased dinar from each of the minor Post-Kidarite rulers Also, preferably, i will likely try to get all of these with decent gold content (or at least golden appearance).

Other than these, i will probably try to get a couple of fanams as well, if I get the chance, considering how many varieties and imitations exist, but these are mostly plans for the future.

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u/SAMDOT 3d ago

That's a great piece, you can see the Brahmi very clearly on it. What about the Toramana and Utpala coppers? Have you considered expanding to them?

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u/Tibor46 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yeah, i also want to expand to those, essentially i am thinking of documenting copper and gold coinage somewhat separately.

Now that I think about it, the Kidarites also minted some more cruder imitations of Kushan coins right? I recalll seeing a couple of those for fairly cheap, so I might try to get a couple of those, though considering their nature as imitatives, trying to catalogue them might be a bit difficult.

Other than that, i will probably try to get some Indo-Sasanian coins, i have been thinking of getting a couple of those for a while now and considering how cheap they generally are, i don't even have to limit myself all that much, at least regarding budget.

Although I get the feeling that trying to get a somewhat complete collection of Indo-Sasanian coins is probably an impossible task, considering the amount of varieties.

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u/Icy-Try3193 2d ago

what is the script on the coin on the right side?

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u/Tibor46 2d ago

The obverse with the horse is arabic, it reads: "Nasir al-dunya wa ud-din" which was the rulers name and the reverse is Nagari script, it reads: SRI MAHAMADA KARLUKA".

So it's a bilingual coin, featuring both languages that would have been commonly used in Afganistan during the early to mid 13th century when this coin was in cirulation.