Item number: A3553

Year: AD 1861

Material: Copper

Size: 17.7 x 13.9 x 2.7 mm

Weight: 4.1 g

Provenance: Stephen Album Rare Coins 2025

This coin is a copper pūl struck under Muhammad Malla Beg Khan of the Kokand Khanate.

It is teardrop-shaped in form, with the obverse bearing the Persian inscription in Perso-Arabic script “محمد” (Muhammad), which is at once a sacred name and the ruler’s own. On the reverse, the lower inscription reads “ملا” (Malla), signifying “Malla”, while the upper inscription reads “خان” (Khan), meaning “khan” or “khan-ruler”. To the left is the inscription “۱۲۷۷”, corresponding to the Hijrī year 1277, equivalent to AD 1861, indicating the date of issue.

The pūl (from Arabic/Persian “پول”, meaning money or copper coin) was a common small-denomination copper coin in Central Asia and the wider Islamic world. Its origins may be traced to the Roman follis, a large copper coin sometimes silvered, which gradually depreciated and was later transmitted through the Byzantine Empire into the Arab Caliphate, where it became the fals, usually of low denomination. In different lands it appeared under variant names such as fils or falus. Another hypothesis links the term to the Ancient Greek “ὀβολός” (obolos), originally a unit of weight and later a small silver coin that eventually shifted to copper. The use of the pūl dates from the Abbasid Caliphate, after which it circulated widely across Central Asia, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and Turkic regions. It served primarily as a medium for everyday petty transactions, being struck mostly in copper or base alloys. Its value was lower than that of silver or gold coinage, and it typically functioned within a tri-metallic system alongside the dinar (gold) and dirham (silver), providing liquidity for small-scale exchanges. Although different states and khanates produced pūls of diverse forms, weights, and inscriptions, their role as the smallest monetary unit remained constant.

The monetary system of the Kokand Khanate (AD 1709–1876) comprised three principal levels: gold tenga, silver dirham and tenga, and copper pūl. Among these, the silver tenga was the principal unit of account, widely used in Kokand and throughout the Fergana Valley, and generally reckoned as equivalent to several dozen pūls, though the exchange ratio varied by time and place. The pūls of Kokand were mostly struck in local mints, inscribed in Arabic or Persian, often naming the reigning khan or bearing Islamic formulae.

The Kokand Khanate was the dominant polity of the Fergana Valley in Central Asia. Tradition traced its rulers to the legacy of the Timurid Empire. Centred on Kokand city, it gradually consolidated control over neighbouring territories and, together with Bukhara and Khiva, formed the three great khanates of the region. Its political system followed Turko-Mongol traditions, with the khan exercising supreme power while relying on tribal nobles and religious leaders. Its population was ethnically diverse, including Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Sogdian-Persianised groups. The khanate reached its zenith in the first half of the nineteenth century, but its expansionist ambitions towards Kashgar brought it into conflict with the Qing Empire. To avoid war, during the Qianlong reign it nominally accepted Qing suzerainty and its rulers were conferred the title “beg”, meaning tribal chief in Turkic. From the mid-nineteenth century the Russian Empire advanced southward, gradually eroding Kokand’s power. Internal instability and frequent succession disputes further weakened it. In AD 1876, Russian forces fully occupied Kokand, abolished the khanate, and established the Fergana Oblast, thus ending Kokand’s independence.

Muhammad Malla Beg Khan, who reigned from AD 1858 to 1862, engaged in repeated military conflicts with the Bukhara Khanate, weakening its position and contesting influence over Transoxiana. At the same time, the Russian Empire advanced southwards, interfering in Kokand’s relations with steppe tribes, exerting pressure through trade and diplomacy, and seizing frontier fortresses. His reign marked both the assertion of Kokand’s power and the mounting external pressures that foreshadowed its decline.

物件編號: A3553

年代: 公元 1861 年

材質: 紅銅

尺寸: 17.7 x 13.9 x 2.7 mm

重量: 4.1 g

來源: 史蒂芬稀有錢幣專輯 2025

這是一枚浩罕汗國馬拉汗所鑄之普爾銅幣。

錢幣形制為水滴形，銘文為波斯體的波斯文「محمد」，即「穆罕默德」，既為聖名也是王名。背面下方銘文「ملا」(Malla)，即「馬拉」，上方銘文「خان」(khan)，即「汗」或｢汗王｣。左側銘文「۱۲۷۷」，即回曆「1277」，標示發行年為公元1861年。

普爾(Pūl)，阿拉伯語/波斯語「پول」，意為錢或銅幣。是一種中亞與伊斯蘭世界常見的小面額銅幣。可能源自羅馬帝國的貨幣「福利斯」(follis)，原為大面額銅幣，最初甚至有包銀。隨後逐漸貶值。後經東羅馬帝國傳入阿拉伯帝國，成為「法爾」(fals)，通常為小面額銅幣。在不同國家，可能還有「費爾」(fils)、「法盧斯」(falus)等變體幣名。另有一說源於古希臘語「ὀβολός」(奧波勒斯，obolós)，曾為一種重量單位，後指一種小額銀幣，在流通中逐漸改為銅幣。普爾的使用最早起源於阿拔斯王朝時期，隨後廣泛流通於中亞、波斯、印度次大陸與突厥地區。普爾在經濟中主要作為日常小額交易貨幣，常見材質為銅或劣質合金。其價值低於銀幣與金幣，通常與「第納爾」(dinar, 金幣)、「迪拉姆」(dirham, 銀幣)形成貨幣體系，提供民間市場中小規模買賣的支付功能。由於地方政權眾多，不同時期、不同汗國所鑄之普爾在形制、重量和銘文上差異極大，但其作為「最小貨幣單位」的功能卻保持長期穩定。

浩罕汗國(Kokand Khanate, 1709–1876) 的貨幣體系主要由金、銀、銅三個層級構成：堅戈(tenga)金幣、迪拉姆(dirham)銀幣、堅戈(tenga)銀幣、以及普爾銅幣(pūl)。其中「堅戈」銀幣是主要的貨幣單位，在浩罕與費爾干納谷地流通廣泛，約等於幾十枚普爾，兌換率在各時間、各地點都有所不同。浩罕的普爾多由當地鑄局製造，銘文採用阿拉伯文或波斯文，通常刻有汗王名號或伊斯蘭宗教用語。

浩罕汗國是中亞地區費爾干納谷地的主要政權，傳說為帖木兒帝國後裔。以浩罕城為都，逐漸統一周邊，與布哈拉、希瓦並列為三大汗國。汗國政體承襲突厥—蒙古傳統，由汗王主政，並依賴部落貴族與宗教領袖。社會成分多元，包括烏茲別克、塔吉克、吉爾吉斯及粟特—波斯化群體。十九世紀前半達到鼎盛，並因欲往新疆喀什地區擴張而與清帝國衝突。為迴避戰事，於乾隆年間名義上成為清朝藩屬國，受封「伯克」(beg)，為突厥部族首領之意。十九世紀俄羅斯帝國南侵，逐步侵蝕汗國勢力，加以汗位更迭頻仍，其勢愈衰。公元1876年，俄軍徹底佔領浩罕，廢除汗位，設立費爾干納州，浩罕汗國自此滅亡。

穆罕默德·馬拉·伯克·汗(Muhammad Malla Beg Khan)，公元1858-1862在位，他與布哈拉汗國發生多次軍事衝突，削弱布哈拉汗國並爭奪對河中地區的影響力。同時，俄羅斯帝國逐步南下，干涉浩罕與草原部族的關係，並加強對外貿易與外交的壓力，邊境堡壘屢屢易手。