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1 Jital - Shams al Din Iltutmish
| Issuer | Delhi Sultanate |
|---|---|
| Year | 1211-1236 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | DR#57, Tye#376 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse of this hammered billon jital displays a stylised bull or recumbent equestrian figure derived from earlier Hindu-Shahi and Ghurid prototype designs, rendered in a highly schematic and angular fashion. To the left and right of the central device appear additional symbols and pellets, characteristic of the transitional Indo-Muslim coinage of the early Delhi Sultanate. The design inherits iconographic elements from pre-Islamic Indian coinage traditions, overlaid with Islamic epigraphic motifs along the periphery. The strike is off-centre and irregular, as is typical for hammered issues of this period. The overall execution reflects the syncretic artistic heritage of the early thirteenth-century Delhi mint. |
| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Iltutmish consolidated the Delhi Sultanate into a genuinely independent power after severing its tributary relationship with the Ghurid successor states — a political rupture formalized partly through coinage, which he reformed to assert sovereign legitimacy on his own terms. He received a patent of investiture from the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad in 1229, the first Delhi sultan to secure such recognition. The billon jital series from his reign draws on pre-existing Ghurid bull-and-horseman types, a deliberate continuity that eased monetary acceptance across a population with no reason to trust a new issuer.