Muzaffar Shah II ruled Gujarat for nearly three decades, but the window captured here — 1517 to 1526 — coincides with the first Portuguese stranglehold on Gujarat's maritime trade routes. The fall of Diu's trading dominance and repeated armed confrontations with Portuguese naval forces defined the sultan's foreign policy far more than any internal affairs. His 1509 defeat at the Battle of Diu, fought in coalition with the Ottomans and Egyptians, had already reshaped the Indian Ocean economy by the time these tankas were being struck.
Copper coinage of this sultanate is frequently found corroded or encrusted, a product of Gujarat's coastal humidity rather than circulation volume.
Muzaffar Shah II ruled Gujarat for nearly three decades, but the window captured here — 1517 to 1526 — coincides with the first Portuguese stranglehold on Gujarat's maritime trade routes. The fall of Diu's trading dominance and repeated armed confrontations with Portuguese naval forces defined the sultan's foreign policy far more than any internal affairs. His 1509 defeat at the Battle of Diu, fought in coalition with the Ottomans and Egyptians, had already reshaped the Indian Ocean economy by the time these tankas were being struck.
Copper coinage of this sultanate is frequently found corroded or encrusted, a product of Gujarat's coastal humidity rather than circulation volume.