1867.] The Initial Coinage of Bengal. 53 



The above specimen is unique in date, and varies in the opening 

 legend of the reverse from the less rare coins of later years, which 

 commence with a&^-sh ij^+i* 



VI.— 'ALA-UD-DIN. 'ALf SHAH. 



'Ali Shah, whom Muhammadan writers, by a strange jumble, have 

 endowed with the surname of his adversary Mubarak, and ordinarily 

 refer to as " 'Ali Mubarak,"f assumed kingship on the death of 

 Kadr Khan, Muhammad Tughlak's representative at Lakhnauti, 

 entitling himself 'Ala-ud-din. The more important incidents of his 

 reign are confined to his hostilities with his rival, Fakhr-ud-dia 

 Mubarak of Sonargaon, who possessed advantages in his maritime 

 resources, while the rivers remained navigable for large vessels during 

 the rainy season, but which were more than counterbalanced by Ali 

 Shah's power on land, which availed him for the greater part of the 

 year, and which finally enabled him to establish his undisputed rule 

 in the Western provinces. 



His coins exhibit elates ranging from 742 to 746 a.h., and bear 

 the impress of the new mint of the metropolis, Firuzabad, an evidence 

 of a change in the royal residence, which clearly implies something 

 more than a mere removal to a new site proximate to the old Lakh- 

 nauti, whose name is henceforth lost sight of, and may be taken to 

 indicate a strategetic transfer of the court to the safer and less exposed 

 locality of the future capital, Pandua.J 'Ali Shah is stated to have 

 been assassinated by his foster brother, Haji Ilfas. § 

 1 Ala-ud-din. 'Ali Shah. 

 No. 12. 

 Firuzabad, 742, 744, 745, 746. 



Silver. Size, vij. Weight, 166.7 grs. Rare. Plate I. fig. 8. 



Type as usual. 



* See also an engraving of his coin (dated 750) Pathan Sultans, fig. 151 and 

 page 82. 



f Budauni MS. Ferishtah, iv. 329. Stewart, p. 82. Ayin-i-Akbari, ii. 21. 



j Stewart, speaking of FiruVs advance against Ilfas, says, "the Emperor 

 advanced to a place now called Feroseporeabad, where he pitched his camp 

 and commenced the operations of the siege of Pundua," p. 84. There is a Mahal 

 Firuzpur in Sircar Tandah, noticed in the Ayin-i-Akbari, ii. p. 2. See also 

 the note from Shams-i-Siraj, quoted below (p. 61), under the notice of Ilfas 

 Shah's reign. 



§ Stewart, p. 83. 



