1/2 Tanka - Hussain Shah

Hussain Shah Sharqi ruled Jaunpur for nearly four decades, making his sultanate the longest and most artistically active of the dynasty. The Sharqi sultans were unusual among northern Indian medieval rulers in their sustained patronage of music and Hindustani classical tradition, and the court at Jaunpur remained a rival cultural center to the Delhi Sultanate throughout this period. Billon fractions like this half-tanka were the everyday transactional currency of the bazaar economy, and survivorship is largely a function of how little they were worth — low-value coins were hoarded less and lost more.