69 
1885.] C. J. Rodgers —The Goins of Ahmad Shah Abdalli. 
dispute liis progress. The armies met at Malupur, six kos from Sarhind. 
There were skirmishes for several days, during one of which the prime 
minister Qamar-ud-Din was killed. In a general engagement which 
ensued, the Afghans bethought them of some rockets they had found 
at Lahore. They essayed to use them against the enemy, but unfor¬ 
tunately they did not know how to discharge them. Instead there¬ 
fore of injuring their foes, they hurt themselves, for they put the rockets 
in the wrong way. The Durrani army being thus self-defeated fled. 
This series of engagements and the flight of the army took place in 
Rabia ul Awwal 1161 A. H., or within 10 months of the murder of 
Nadir, i. e., in the first year of Ahmad Shah Durrani. 
My first rupee (Plate II, fig. 1) illustrates this campaign. It was 
struck at Lahore in his first year The inscriptions on it are as 
follows:— 
jj&y AjLi«,j(jf^ 
J t - 1/0 r’tfr'hsQ 
The reverse has on it the couplet given above and 11, portions of 
the date 1161. The meaning of this couplet may be thus rendered :— 
Ahmad Shah, received an order from the Unlike Powerful One 
To strike coins in silver and gold from the height of the fish to the 
Moon. 
As Ahmad Shah the son of Muhammad Shah was returning from 
the battle in which the Durrani Ahmad was defeated, he heard of the 
death of his father which took place on the 26th of Rabia us Sani 1161. 
I have a coin of the 2nd year of Ahmad Shah Durrani. On the 
reverse it has :— 
I* ^ yM Q J ' *0 '•l^X^Jk/0 
I * . * 
I have seen no early Afghan coins struck at Kabul or Kandahar ; so 
I judge they must be very rare. The Dehli Ahmad must have recover¬ 
ed Sarhind and Lahore the same year, for I have rupees struck at these 
two towns in his first year 1161 A. H. Sarhind in those days must 
have been a glorious city, if the space now covered with ruins was in¬ 
habited. 
Meer Munnoo the son of Qamar-ud-Din was made governor of 
Lahore. He destroyed the fort Ram Rownee which the Sikhs had made 
at Amritsar. The Durrani hearing of the death of Qamar-ud-Din in 
battle and of the Dehli emperor’s after it again crossed the Indus. 
He was, however, persuaded to retire. To this second invasion I attri¬ 
bute the Peshawar coin of his second year given above. 
