Iltutmish, who ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1211 to 1236, issued coinage in the name of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah as a deliberate act of political legitimation — acknowledging Sunni caliphal authority while Baghdad still stood. After the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 and executed the last Abbasid caliph, such coins became relics of a world order that had ceased to exist. This piece predates that destruction by decades.
Iltutmish, who ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1211 to 1236, issued coinage in the name of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah as a deliberate act of political legitimation — acknowledging Sunni caliphal authority while Baghdad still stood. After the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 and executed the last Abbasid caliph, such coins became relics of a world order that had ceased to exist. This piece predates that destruction by decades.