2017-01-27 Fri

Ghiyath shah (AH 873-906; AD 1496-1500) was the sultan of Malwa, he was also known as Ghiyas-ud-din Shah. He was the eldest son of Mahmud. He had served his father as a military leader.

Ghiyath shah struck his coins in gold, silver, copper and billon. At the beginning of his reign he used to strike his coins in a circular flan, but in the later period, his coins were struck in square flan. Gold coins which were struck in the period from AH 873 to AH 878 are circular in shape; all the coins which were struck in the later period of his reign are in square flan. His circular coins are scarcer than square ones. His silver half tanka weighs around 5-5.1g and was struck from the AH year 878 onwards.

One of his special issues of Nazrana Silver tanka which weighs around 11.8g has the special poetic legend. the obverse of the coin reads as’Al-Sultan Ghiyath Shah Wali Pad Kamgar Gufta Muizz-i-Bigunah’ meaning’ The Sultan Ghiyath Shah Defender of the fortunate throne, said of the sinless worshipper’ and reverse of the coin inscribed as ‘In haman muhr ast ke ankah Maghribi Bazzad ba-rahi-i-Khusru-i-Khalji Ghiyath Al Din Mahmud Shah.’ This coin was sold for INR 1, 20,000 at Todywalla Auction held in Mumbai on 3rd February 2016.