684 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1910. 



'the unique, 5 but certainly the penultimate letter seems on 

 every specimen to be not nun, but lam. 



The Reverse legend is t&j* <^ ^iU. Murtada, * the 



Chosen,' is a title frequently applied to c Ali, the Khalifa, and 

 Ibrahim II, himself a Shi'a, might thus gladly style himself 

 'Slave of 'All the Chosen.' 



All these six coins are dated. On the three heavier the 

 year is 1022, 102 [? 4], 102 [? 4], and on the three lighter 1022, 

 102 [? 5], and xxxx. 



Type VI {Plate XXXIX, Figure 5). 



Number of specimens 70 : (a) 1 (Thanawala). 



(b) 54 (Cousens) ; 3 (Thanawala). 



(c) 11 (Cousens); 1 (Thanawala). 



1. Reign: Muhammad: A.H. 1037—1067. 



2. Diameter: (a) • 85 (Thanawala) ; (b) -8; (c) "7 inch. 



3. Weight : (a) 267 grs. (Thanawala). 



(&) 179 grs. (average of 57). 

 (c) 117 grs. (average of 12). 



Obverse and Reverse legends together make the following 

 couplet, arranged as in Fig. 5 : 



*W * &±i} *+if ***** y ^3 o l t^ 



$li 4t*3n./o ^£ (J — ^ jq &.+**. * , <C 



The world from these two Muhammads received beauty 

 and dignity ; 



The first is Muhammad the Apostle, the second Muham- 

 mad Shah. 



One of the queens of Muhammad Shah was named Taj 

 Julian Begam, and possibly there may be a veiled allusion to 

 this lady in the distich inscribed on the king's coin. The lines 

 would then bear this interpretation : — 



The world (Jahan) received beauty and dignity from 

 Muhammad the Apostle, the queen (Taj Jahan) from Muham- 

 mad Shah. 



Or can the statement that Muhammad Shah conferred 

 beauty and dignity on the world find its explanation in the 

 marvellous tomb that this Sultan began to build soon after his 

 accession to the throne ? Dwarfing every other edifice in 

 Bijapur, the Gol Gumbadh covers a larger area than any other 

 dome in the world. Second to it, but longo intervallo, corned 

 the Pantheon at Rome. 



Probably, however, we had better not seek too exact a 

 justification of the distich on thm* nnins a.nrl in at be content 



