Muhammad Khodabanda came to the throne in 1578 almost by accident — passed over for years due to near-total blindness, he was elevated only after his brother Ismail II died, likely poisoned, following a brutal purge of Safavid princes. His reign was dominated by his wife Mahd-i Ulya, who exercised real power until her murder in 1579, and by catastrophic Ottoman and Uzbek pressure on the empire's frontiers. Kashan, a prosperous textile and craft center in the Persian interior, remained one of the more stable minting operations during this turbulent period.
The "type A" designation marks this among the earliest issues of his reign, struck within months of his accession.
Muhammad Khodabanda came to the throne in 1578 almost by accident — passed over for years due to near-total blindness, he was elevated only after his brother Ismail II died, likely poisoned, following a brutal purge of Safavid princes. His reign was dominated by his wife Mahd-i Ulya, who exercised real power until her murder in 1579, and by catastrophic Ottoman and Uzbek pressure on the empire's frontiers. Kashan, a prosperous textile and craft center in the Persian interior, remained one of the more stable minting operations during this turbulent period.
The "type A" designation marks this among the earliest issues of his reign, struck within months of his accession.