1917.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXVIII. 45 





In this case Boran entered on her third year in the fourteenth 

 month of her reign. According to the calculations of Noeldeke 

 Queen Boran began to reign in the summer of 630 and was 

 deposed in the autumn of 631. As the Persian year ran from 

 June to June, we can safely place her accession in May or the 

 beginning of June 630. Thus : 



May to 16th June 630. about one month of reign, 1st year. 

 17th June 630 to 16th June 631, 2nd year. 

 17th June to October 631, about four months of reign, 3rd 

 year. 



This makes in all about seventeen months of reign, with the 

 two extreme dates of May 630 and October 631. Obviously 

 therefore coins of the first regnal year, as that under considera- 

 tion, must be extremely rare, as the issues of the first month 

 were probably, but not necessarily, very limited. 



Ftjrdoonjee D. J. Paruck. 



171. The Dirham- i-Shar'ai. 



Among the exceedingly varied and often artistically exe- 

 cuted issues of the Mughal Mints, the u legal drachms" of 

 Aurangzeb possess no small interest, at least for the collector 

 who can bring historical information to bear on Numismatic 

 enquiry, and can, at the same time, illustrate the often imper- 

 fect annals of the Musalman rulers by their coins. These 

 curious dirhams are so very rare as to be absolutely unrepre- 

 sented even in the Indian Museum, and altogether only one 

 or two specimens are known of the issue of one or other of 

 about five Mints (Allahabad, Patna, Katak, Lahor and 

 Multan. Whitehead, P.M.C. xxvi). But if their scarcity is 

 not a little provoking, the silence of the Muhammadan chronic- 

 lers, who are never weary of filling pages with banal descrip- 

 tions of pageants and ceremonies, honours and titles and even 

 presents and prodigies, about the date, the object, or the 

 circumstances connected with the is^ue of this currency, is 

 almost exasperating. There is not a word about them in the 

 valuable Introduction to the Indian Museum Catalogue, 

 and all that Mr. Whitehead says of them is that " apparently, 

 they had some bearing on dowry and the Muhammadan Law." 

 (P.M.C. Introduction, xxv-xxvij. In another place, he appends 



the following note,: 



" According to the Muhammadan Law, a property-owner 

 must possess assets of the value of 200 dirhams before he becomes 

 liable to the tax of *(# (alms). Taking the value of the dirham 

 to be that fixed by the Khalifah 'Umr (Omar), ten of these 

 dirhams are equivalent to seven Misqals. Such a dirham is 

 called a legal dirham, and it seems that Aurangzeb had speci- 



