Item number: A3563

Year: AD 1902-1910

Material: Silver

Size: 18.3 x 15.8 x 0.9 mm

Weight: 2.45 g

Provenance: Stephen Album Rare Coins 2025

This is a silver tenga coin struck under Muhammad Rahim Khan II of the Kongrat dynasty of the Khwarazm Khanate.

The inscriptions are in Persian, written in naskh script. The obverse bears the inscription “سید محمد رحیم بهادر خان” (Sayyed Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan), that is, “Sayyed Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan.” At the bottom appears the date “۱٣۲?,” corresponding to AH 132?, with the final digit unclear, indicating the year of issue. The inscription is enclosed within a fence-like border.

The reverse inscription reads “ضرب دارالاسلام خوارزم” (zarb dar al-Islam Khwarizm), meaning “struck at Khwarazm, the Abode of Islam.” This is enclosed within a single circle, surrounded by vegetal decoration, and framed by the same fence-like border as the obverse.

The term tenga (also tanga) in the Turkic languages often denotes scales, balance, or a unit of weight or measure. Its etymology may derive from the Chinese or Mongolian word “等” (deng), meaning “equal.” As a currency, it may also be related to the small silver coin “tangka” of the Indian subcontinent, introduced by the Delhi Sultanate in the thirteenth century AD and diffused across Central Asia with the spread of Islam. Initially struck in copper with a legally fixed exchange ratio to silver and gold, the coin later came to be issued mainly in silver as political and military disorder undermined standards. In Central Asia, beginning in the period of the Bukhara Khanate, the silver tenga became the primary medium of circulation, supplemented by copper fals.

The Khwarazm Khanate originated in the early sixteenth century, established by Uzbek tribes in the Khwarazm region following the fragmentation of the Chagatai Khanate. Its capital was long located at Khiva, whence Russian historians referred to it as the “Khanate of Khiva,” and some European writers at times called it the “Uzbek Khanate.” Geographically it occupied the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, encompassing present-day western Uzbekistan and parts of Turkmenistan. Political authority was concentrated in the hands of the Uzbek khan and his kin, but its subjects also included Persians, Karakalpaks, and other Central Asian peoples. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries the khanate was challenged by Persia, the Bukhara Khanate, and Kazakh nomadic tribes, and by the nineteenth century it increasingly became a target of Russian imperial expansion southward.

In AD 1873 Tsar Alexander II dispatched an army that decisively defeated the reigning khan, Muhammad Rahim Khan II, and occupied the capital, forcing the khanate into the status of a Russian protectorate. Thereafter, although Khwarazm continued to be ruled nominally by its local khans, its foreign policy and military affairs were entirely subordinated to Russia, and its economy was absorbed into the imperial colonial order. For several decades the Khivan khans maintained local authority, but the khanate was no longer an independent state and functioned as one of Russia’s subordinate regimes in Central Asia.

With the outbreak of the Russian October Revolution in AD 1917, Bolshevik influence spread into Central Asia. In AD 1920 Bolshevik forces and local revolutionary groups overthrew the last khan, Sayyid Abdulla Khan, bringing an end to more than four centuries of Khwarazmian rule. The “Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic” was then established, also known as the Khwarazm Republic. In AD 1923 it was reorganised as the “Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic,” nominally an independent Soviet republic but in practice part of the Soviet system. In AD 1924, with the Soviet national delimitation of Central Asia, the Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic was formally dissolved, and its territory was divided among the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast. Thereafter Khwarazm ceased to exist as an independent polity, becoming fully integrated into the administrative and national framework of the Soviet Union.

物件編號: A3563

年代: 公元 1902-1910 年

材質: 銀

尺寸: 18.3 x 15.8 x 0.9 mm

重量: 2.45 g

來源: 史蒂芬稀有錢幣專輯 2025

這是一枚花剌子模汗國弘吉剌王朝之穆罕默德·拉希姆汗二世所鑄之堅戈銀幣。

錢幣銘文為波斯體的波斯文。正面幣銘「سید محمد رحیم بهادر خان」(Sayyed Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan)，即「賽義德·穆罕默德·馬拉·汗」。最下方銘文「۱٣۲?」，即回曆「132?」，最後一字不明，標示了發行年。幣銘以柵欄型輪廓包圍。

背面幣銘為「ضرب دارالاسلام خوارزم」(zarb dat ul Islam Khwarizm)，即「造於花剌子模伊斯蘭國」。幣銘以單環包圍，外有蔓草紋飾。幣銘與正面同，以柵欄型輪廓包圍。

「堅戈」(tenga, tanga)於突厥語系中多表示天秤、平衡，或某種計量、計重單位。語源可能來自漢語、蒙語中的「等」(deng)，為相等之意。作為貨幣，亦可能源於流通於印度次大陸的小面額銀幣「唐卡」(tangka)，由德里蘇丹國於公元十三世紀時創用，經穆斯林的擴張而為中亞地區所熟悉。最初為銅質，以法律規定對銀或金的兌換比例，後隨著政治與軍事的混亂，逐漸改為以銀為主。在中亞地區，自布哈拉汗國時期，銀堅戈便是主要的流通貨幣，輔以銅法爾。

花拉子模汗國(Khwarazm Khanate)起源於16世紀初，是由察合台汗國分裂後的烏茲別克部族在花剌子模地區建立的政權。首都長期設於希瓦城，故俄羅斯史家稱為「希瓦汗國」，部分歐洲史家亦有時稱其為「烏茲別克汗國」，其地理位置位於阿姆河下游，涵蓋今烏茲別克西部與土庫曼部分地區。汗國的政治權力集中於烏茲別克汗及同族之統治者，但其臣民包括波斯人、卡拉卡爾帕克人及其他中亞民族。花拉子模汗國在公元16至18世紀持續受到波斯、布哈拉汗國與哈薩克遊牧部族的挑戰，並在19世紀逐漸成為俄羅斯帝國南下擴張的目標。

公元1873年，沙皇亞歷山大二世派遣軍隊徹底擊敗花剌子模汗國時任汗王拉希姆二世，攻佔首都，迫使其成為俄羅斯的保護國。從此，雖然花剌子模汗國仍由當地汗王名義統治，但其外交與軍事完全受制於俄羅斯，經濟體系亦被納入俄羅斯帝國的殖民經濟秩序。此後的數十年間，希瓦汗國的地方統治持續存在，但已不復獨立，成為俄羅斯帝國在中亞的重要從屬政權之一。

隨著公元1917年俄國十月革命的爆發，布爾什維克黨人的勢力逐漸滲透至中亞地區。公元1920年，布爾什維克軍隊與當地革命力量推翻了花剌子模汗國最後一任汗王賽義德·阿卜杜拉汗(Sayid Abdulla Khan)的統治，結束了汗國長達四百年的歷史。隨後成立了「花剌子模人民蘇維埃共和國」(Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic)，又稱花拉子模共和國。公元1923年，花剌子模共和國被改組為「花剌子模蘇維埃社會主義共和國」(Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic)，名義上是獨立的蘇維埃加盟共和國，實際上已是蘇聯體系下的一部分。至公元1924年，隨著蘇聯在中亞實行民族疆界劃分(National Delimitation of Central Asia)，花剌子模蘇維埃社會主義共和國被正式解散，其領土被劃分納入烏茲別克蘇維埃社會主義共和國、土庫曼蘇維埃社會主義共和國與卡拉卡爾帕克自治州。自此，花剌子模作為獨立政體徹底消亡，融入蘇聯的行政與民族結構之中。