Digital museum showcasing the collection of worldwide legends over the years! 千古不朽博物館展示多年來收藏的世界傳奇故事!
Khanate of Bukhara
Shaybanid Dynasty
Abdullah Khan II
Fals
Tashkand Mint
布哈拉汗國
昔班王朝
阿卜杜拉汗二世
法爾
塔什干造
Item number: A3559
Year: AD 1576-1598 (AH 984-1007)
Material: Copper
Size: 15.9 x 15.5 x 1.4 mm
Weight: 2.1 g
Manufactured by: Tashkand Mint
Provenance: Stephen Album Rare Coins 2025
This is a copper fals issued under Abdullah Khan II of the Khanate of Bukhara following his conquest of Tashkent.
The obverse depicts an animal facing left, possibly a deer or a lion. Above the figure there appears to be a date, but it is effaced and illegible.
The reverse bears the inscription “ضرب تاشکند” (zarb Tāshkand), meaning “struck at Tashkent.” The legend is enclosed within a double circular border, between which runs a beaded circle.
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.