1878.] Unique Gold Coin of Jaldl-uddin Flruz Shall (II). 65 



Gold coin struch hj Flruz Slidh II, of DiliH, A. H. 692 [A. D. 1293] 

 Gold. Weight, 168*61 grains. Unique. Mr. Jos. T. Tripe, of Djnechu- 

 pra. (Vide Thomas, ' Pathan Kings', p. 141, and PI. II, No. 50.) 



Margin — &jUi-«^ ^^^x«.Jj ^^Jj^^I ^'^ ^^^ (^^Aj> 'ij^s:^. s,^^\ t'cyit v^^ 



Eeyeese— (jlJai'^t i^^ j^jx} yiikj] jA i^yi<^^\ J ^^i'^i\ J% ^^c^t (jtia^-J| 



Margin — the same as the margin o£ the Obverse. 



Obverse — The Imam Miosta'' gim, Commander of the Faithful, 

 Margin — This coin was struclc at Dihli, the capital, in 692. 



Reyeese — The great king Jaldl-iiddunyd wad-din Ahul-Muzaffar 

 Firiiz Shah. 



Though Al-Musta'9im, the last Khalifah of Baghdad, had lost his 

 empire and his life in the invasion of the Mughuls (Mongolians) under 

 Hulagu Khan in 656 H., the kings of India continued his name on 

 their coinage for ftiore than sixty years, just as Indian princes until 

 lately continued to strike coins in the name of Shah 'Alam. During the 

 eighth century of the Hijrah, Indian kings applied to, and received from, 

 the Fatimite Sultans of Egypt, sanads of investiture ; and we see from the 

 poems of Badr-i-Chach, the poet-laureate of Ghiyas-uddin Tughluq how 

 great a value the Muhammadans attached to such sanads. Mubarak Shah 

 {vide Thomas, /. c, p. 255) appears to have been the first king of Dihli 

 who assumed the title of Khalifah. After him the title becomes quite 

 common, the phrase used on the coins being cJ^^*^-^' J ^s^srJIj &JJi aaaI^^ 

 ' the Ee|)resentive {Khalifah) of God by proof and evidence'. Akbar also 

 used it in that peculiar sense which the establishment of his ' Divine Faith' 

 gave it ; but I have not seen it on the coins of his successors, though it 

 often occurs applied to them in the prefaces of Muhammadan works. 

 Now-a-days, the grand title of. Khalifah has sunk so low as to be applied to 

 master tailors, cooks, and other menial servants. The Sultans of Turkey 

 appear to claim it as having descended to them from the Egyptian 

 Khalifah s -, but from the preceding examples, it is clear that any Muham- 

 madan king may assume the title and the exercise of the spiritual functions 

 which the title is supposed to imply.' 



