Item number: A3568

Year: AD 1584-1598 (AH 992-1006)

Material: Gold

Size: 12.9 x 10.6 x 0.5 mm

Weight: 0.9 g

Manufactured by: Badakhshan Mint

Provenance: Stephen Album Rare Coins 2025

This is a one-twelfth Mughal mohur gold coin struck under Abdullah Khan II, ruler of the Bukhara Khanate between AD 1583 and 1598.

The inscriptions are in Persian. On the obverse, the legend, read vertically from right to left, bears the Islamic profession of faith: “لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله” (Lā ilāha illā Allāh, Muḥammad rasūl Allāh), meaning “There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” At the upper left, the inscription “Muḥammad” is present, above which there is a four-petalled floral ornament. On the reverse, the lower inscription reads “عبد الله” (ʿAbdullāh), that is, “Abdullah.” Above it, separated by a horizontal line, appears “بهادر” (bahadur), signifying “the valiant,” a title of the khan. Other parts of the inscription are indistinct, though possibly including “پسر اسكندر” (pesar-i Iskandar), meaning “son of Iskandar.”

Following the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire, Shiban, the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Chinggis Khan, accompanied his brother Batu in the westward campaigns into Europe, and was thereby granted rule over the Blue Horde. By the mid-fourteenth century the succession of the Golden Horde passed to the White Horde lineage, and the Blue Horde was squeezed between eastern and western rivals. Consequently, part of the Shibanid family merged with the White Horde, while another branch migrated southwards. In AD 1396, after overthrowing the Chaghatayid khanate in Transoxiana, Timur advanced against the Golden Horde and defeated Toqtamish Khan. The Golden Horde thereafter entered into decline. In AD 1405, Timur died while campaigning towards China, and his empire likewise began to disintegrate. In AD 1423, Abūʾl-Khayr Khan, himself of the Blue Horde Shibanids, deposed Hajji Muhammad Khan of the Golden Horde, who had established power in Siberia, and secured authority over the Siberian tribes. From AD 1430 onwards, Abūʾl-Khayr extended his conquests into Transoxiana, capturing Khwarazm and other territories formerly under the weakening control of the Timurids, and established the Uzbek Khanate. The Shibanid branch that remained in Siberia alternated power with local forces in what became the Siberian Khanate. After Abūʾl-Khayr’s death in war against the Kazakh tribes, the Uzbek Khanate fragmented. In the early sixteenth century, his grandson Muhammad Shaybani, having shifted allegiance variously between the Kazakh khans, the Timurids, and the Eastern Chaghatayids, seized Samarkand and Bukhara, and thereby founded the Bukhara Khanate. Meanwhile, another Shibanid branch established control over Khwarazm, forming the Khwarazm Khanate, later known as the Khiva Khanate.

By the mid-sixteenth century, succession struggles erupted within the Bukhara Khanate, as Shibanid princes contended violently with one another. In AD 1557, the Miankal ruler Abdullah, supported by Sufi factions, captured the city of Bukhara. In AD 1561, his father Iskandar was nominally enthroned as khan, while Abdullah himself conducted the actual administration. To address shortages of coinage and its outflow, Abdullah introduced monetary reforms centred on the Bukhara mint, dynamically regulating the volume of gold coinage and the silver content of the currency. This monetary stability provided the basis for public works and for trade with the Mughal Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Abdullah subsequently defeated rival Shibanid princes ruling in Tashkent, Balkh, and Samarkand, thereby unifying the various Uzbek tribes. In AD 1583 he formally assumed the title of khan, and by virtue of his accomplishments became known as “Buzurg Khan,” meaning “the Great Khan.”

From AD 1584 onwards, the Bukhara Khanate embarked upon external expansion. That year, Abdullah seized Badakhshan, a principality formerly under the suzerainty of the Mughals, thereby terminating the local line of mirs. It was also at this time that the coinage type of the Mughal emperor Akbar, the mohur, appears to have been introduced in Bukhara as a model for fractional gold denominations. In AD 1588 Abdullah’s forces conquered Khorasan, and in AD 1594 they took Khwarazm. In AD 1598, while preparing to confront the Kazakh Khanate in battle, Abdullah II died in Bukhara. The state subsequently descended into civil conflict. The Shibanid dynasty came to an end, and rule passed to the Astrakhanid dynasty.

物件編號: A3568

年代: 公元 1584-1598 年 (回曆 992-1006 年)

材質: 黃金

尺寸: 12.9 x 10.6 x 0.5 mm

重量: 0.9 g

製造地: 巴達赫尚造幣廠

來源: 史蒂芬稀有錢幣專輯 2025

這是一枚於公元1583-1598年在任的布哈拉汗，阿卜杜拉汗二世，所鑄的1/12蒙兀兒莫哈爾金幣。

金幣幣銘為波斯文。正面幣銘由上而下，由右而左應為清真言「لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله」(Lā ilāha illā Allāh, Muḥammad rasūl Allāh)，即「萬物非主，唯有真主，穆罕默德，是主使者」。左上「穆罕默德」上方有一四瓣花飾。

背面下方幣銘應為「عبد الله 」(Abdullah)，即「阿卜杜拉」。以橫線相隔，上方中央為「بهادر」(bahadur)，即「勇士」，為汗王稱號。其餘文字不明，可能是「 پسر اسكندر」(pesar-i Iskandar)，即「伊斯坎達爾之子」。

蒙古帝國分裂後，成吉思汗之孫，朮赤五子昔班，追隨其兄金帳汗拔都進軍歐洲，從而得封藍帳汗國。公元十四世紀中葉，金帳汗位由白帳汗王繼嗣，藍帳汗國的勢力收到東、西側的夾擠。因此昔班家族一部分向東融合白帳汗國，一部分向南遷移。公元1396年，在擊潰河中地區的察合台汗國後，帖木兒繼續向金帳汗國進軍，擊潰金帳可汗脫脫迷失，此後金帳汗國逐漸瓦解。公元1405年，帖木兒在進軍中國途中逝世，此後帖木兒帝國逐漸瓦解。公元1423年，藍帳可汗阿布海兒廢黜同為昔班家族，以西伯利亞為勢力核心的金帳汗哈只·穆罕默德，控制西伯利亞地區諸部族。公元1430年起，阿布海兒進軍河中地區，奪取當時帖木兒王朝控制漸弱的花剌子模等地區，建烏茲別克汗國。留守西伯利亞的昔班家族分支與當地勢力輪番統治西伯利亞汗國。後阿布海兒在對哈薩克部族的戰爭中逝世，烏茲別克汗國分裂瓦解。公元十六世紀初，阿布海兒之孫昔班尼輾轉附於哈薩克汗國、帖木兒帝國與東察合台汗國，攻取撒馬爾罕、布哈拉等地，建布哈拉汗國。花剌子模地區則由另一支昔班家族建花剌子模汗國(即希瓦汗國)。

公元十六世紀中，布哈拉汗國爆發繼承權爭，昔班家族各地蘇丹相互攻伐。公元1557年，米安卡爾(Miankal)地區的蘇丹阿卜杜拉，在蘇菲派支持下攻佔布哈拉城。公元1561年，擁立其父伊斯坎達爾為布哈拉汗，實際政務則由阿卜杜拉處理。為遏止貨幣短缺及外流，阿卜杜拉以布哈拉造幣廠為中心進行了貨幣改革，動態調整金幣鑄量與銀幣成色。經濟的平穩為公共建設以及與蒙兀兒帝國、俄羅斯帝國、鄂圖曼帝國之間的貿易創造了基礎。阿卜杜拉先後擊敗塔什干、巴爾赫、撒馬爾罕等地的昔班蘇丹，一統諸部族。公元1583年，阿卜杜拉即位為汗，由於其功績，亦稱為「布祖爾格汗」，即「大汗」。公元1584年，挾兵鋒之利，布哈拉汗國開始向外擴張，先是攻佔歸附蒙兀兒帝國的巴達赫尚，終結了當地歷代米爾的統治。大概也是這時起引入蒙兀兒阿克巴大帝「莫哈爾」形制的金幣，作為小面額的金幣。公元1588年攻佔呼羅珊。公元1594年攻佔花剌子模。公元1598年，哈薩克汗國向布哈拉汗國開戰，在與哈薩克交戰前，阿卜杜拉二世病逝於布哈拉。此後布哈拉汗國陷入內亂，昔班王朝終結，改由阿斯特拉罕王朝進行統治。