226 C. J. Rodgers— Coins of Nimroz. [No. 2, 
Coins of Nimréz.—By Cuas. J. Ropcurs, Honorary Nuimismatist to the 
rovernment of India, Honorary Member of the Numismatic Society of 
London, §c. 
(With Plate VII.) 
[Read May 1896 ]. 
Nimréz is a country we most of us read of first, when we waded 
through the pages of that book so well known to us all when we first 
came to India, the jks gb. I do not think Mir Aman knew much of 
Geography or History, though he may have written good Urdi. We 
learn little from him about Nimrdz. The origin of the name is said to 
be this, that when Solomon visited this part (and of course he did; 
for the Takht-i-Sulaiman is named after him), he saw the whole 
country west of Qandahar full of water. He ordered jinns and fairies 
to fill it up, and they did so in half a day, 7.e, Nimrédz. Hence the 
country is called Nimrdz. But perhaps it is so called from its being half 
way between Sham (Syria, and evening, 7.e., sunset) and India, z.e., 
the mid-day country. Its capital was Zaranj,and we have early 
Khalifa coins struck in that place. But the country was also called 
Sijistan, and this name is found also on coins; for Nasr, the brother of 
Mahmiad of Ghaznih, ruled and coined there. Zaranj and Sijistan dis- 
appear from later coins, and in their stead appears the name Nimrdoz. 
This country, travellers tell us, was formerly densely inhabited, as is 
shown by the ruins of numerous cities still visible. There is no doubt 
about coins having been struck there. Three are figured on Pl. XXXII, 
of the second Appendix to the Catalogue of Oriental Coins, published by 
the British Museum, wiz., 248e, 2480 and 248m. Two of these are 
gold. In the text they are called coins of the Shirwan Shahs. Dr. 
Codrington in his description of a hoard of coins found at Broach, in the 
Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society gives two 
gold coins, Nos. 28 and 29, PI. III, but he frankly says, “I do not know 
to whom to attribute them.” The mint is legible on them Soper. He 
makes some small mistakes in reading the legends on them. He reads 
