1 Tanka - Muhammad bin Tughluq ino Al Mustakfi Billah

Muhammad bin Tughluq is one of medieval India's most polarizing rulers — brilliant by some accounts, catastrophically impulsive by others. His decision in the 1320s to relocate the entire capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in the Deccan, forcing mass migration of the population, is among the more astonishing administrative experiments of the sultanate period. The coinage issued under his authority reflects a ruler constantly reshaping imperial identity, including the unusual step of citing the Abbasid caliph Al-Mustakfi Billah as a legitimizing authority — a caliph who by this point existed under Mamluk protection in Cairo, the original Baghdad caliphate having been extinguished by the Mongols in 1258.

Billon issues of this reign are frequently encountered with uneven surfaces owing to the debased alloy.