38 TJie Initial Coinage of Bengal. [Nd. 1, 



insertion of the short vowels with the more deferred issues, as it, on 

 the other hand, closely identifies itself in these marked peculiarities 

 with the initial dies of Altamsh and the closely sequent coinages of 

 Riziah, two of which latter are now known to be the produce of the 

 Lakhnauti Mint. 



RIZIAH. 



The earliest coins that can be definitely attributed to a Bengal 

 mint, are those of the celebrated Queen Regnant of Muhammadan 

 India — Riziah, the daughter of Altamsh. The ministers at her 

 father's court were scandalized at the preference it was proposed to 

 extend to a daughter, in supercession of the claims of adult male heirs 

 to the throne ; but the Sultan justified his selection, alike on account 

 of the demerits of his sons, and the gifts and acquirements of his 

 daughter, who had been brought up under the unusual advantages of 

 freedom from the seclusion enjoined for females by the more severe 

 custom of ordinary Moslem households, aided by the advantages in- 

 cident to the exalted position occupied by her mother as the leading 

 and independently-domiciled wife. After the brief reign of Rukn-ud- 

 din Firuz, extending over less than seven months — who freely ex- 

 emplified by his misconduct his father's prophetic reproach — Riziah 

 succeeded in establishing her supremacy in the city of Dehli (a. h. 

 734), and Eastern eyes witnessed the singular spectacle of an unveiled 

 and diademed Queen — the first in India — directing the hosts of Islam, 

 under the canopy of the immemorial regal seat on an elephant. 

 Riziah's early inauguration was attended with no inconsiderable dan- 

 ger and difficulty, arising from the organised military resources of the 

 various governors of provinces, who hesitated in conceding their 

 allegiance. Eventually, however, to use the expression of Minhaj- 

 ul-Siraj, quiet was established throughout the empire, and Riziah's 

 sway was acknowledged from " Daibal to Lakhnauti." In a.h. 737, 

 the Empress proceeded in person to quell an outbreak on the part of 

 Ikhtiar-ud-din Altuniah, Governor of Tiberhind ; but was taken 

 captive in the engagement that ensued, and, possibly with scant cere- 

 mony, introduced into the harem of the conqueror, who shortly 

 afterwards advanced upon Dehli in the hope of recovering the so- 

 vereignty, to which he had thus acquired an adventitious claim ; but 



