56 Tlie Initial Coinage of Bengal. [No. 1, 



The compiler of the English version of the early history of 

 Bengal* adopts the conclusion that Haji Ilias first obtained power 

 on the assassination of " 'Ali Mubarak" in 745-6, but the previous 

 rectification of the independent personality and status of the two 

 individuals thus singularly absorbed into one, will prepare the reader 

 for the corrections involved, though not, perhaps, for the apparent 

 anomalies the coins disclose. Medallic testimony would seem to 

 indicate a long waging of hostile interests between the real 'Ali 

 Shah and Haji Ilias, before the latter attained his final local 

 triumph ; for although Ilias is seen to have coined money in Firiizabad 

 in 740 a.h., the chance seems to have been denied him in 741 ; 

 and in 742 his adversary, 'Ali Shah, is found in full possession 

 of the mint in question. The Kooch Bahar hoard reveals no coin of 

 either party dated 743, but in 744 the two again compete for owner- 

 ship, which 'Ali Shah for the time being continues through 745 into 

 746, when the annual series is taken up and carried on successively 

 for an uninterrupted twelve years by his more favoured opponent. It 

 is needless to speculate on the varying course of these individual 

 triumphs ; suffice it to say, that the increasing power of the ruler of 

 Pandua, in 754, excited the Emperor Firtiz III, to proceed against 

 him in all the pomp and following of an Oriental suzerain, resulting 

 only in the confession of weakness, conveniently attributed to 

 the periodical flooding of the country-}- — which effectively laid 



* Stewart, p. 83. 



f Stewart felt a difficulty about the right position of AhddlaJi; the real point 

 of attack, and a place of considerable importance in the local history of Beno-al. 

 The following is Zia-i-Barni's description of the place, taken from the concluding* 

 chapters of his history on the occasion of Firtiz Shah's (III.) invasion of Beno-al 

 in 754 a.h.:— ° 



P. 588, printed edit, ^y &i\^\ ^ &.s> j &) b \j 



Eennell gives another Akdallah north of Dacca. " Map of Hindoostan." 

 In the following passage Shams-i-Siraj desires to make it appear that Ffriiz 

 III. gave his own name to the city of Pandua ; but, as we have seen that the 

 designation was applied to the new capital either in 740 or 742 — that is, long 

 before Firiiz became king of Dehli, it will be preferable to conclude that the 

 name was originally bestowed in honour of the Shams-ud-din Firiiz of Bengal, of 

 the present series. The quotation is otherwise of value, as it establishes, beyond 

 a doubt, the true position of the new metropolis : — 



