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1 Jital - Shams al Din Iltutmish
| Issuer | Delhi Sultanate |
|---|---|
| Year | 1211-1236 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Arabic |
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| Reverse description | Reverse displays a stylized bull standing to the left with a prominent hump, rendered in a highly schematic, almost abstract manner inherited from pre-Sultanate Rajput coinage traditions. To the right, a horseman is depicted in a similarly schematized form, seated on horseback and facing left. Decorative elements including a central multi-petalled rosette or star ornament and dot-and-arc border motifs fill the remaining field. This bull-and-horseman type is characteristic of the transitional coinage struck by Iltutmish, blending indigenous Rajput iconographic conventions with the new Islamic sultanate authority. |
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| Additional information |
Iltutmish consolidated the Delhi Sultanate into a functioning independent state after severing its administrative ties to the Ghurid sultanate following the assassination of Qutb ud-Din Aibak in 1210. His coinage reform was deliberate policy — he introduced the silver tanka and copper jital as a standardized bimetallic system, the first coherent monetary framework in the subcontinent under Sultanate rule. The billon jital sits at the lower end of that hierarchy, struck for everyday transaction in a cash economy that was still absorbing the shock of Turkic conquest.
Iltutmish also received formal investiture from the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad in 1229, lending his issues a legitimacy his predecessors lacked.