ORIENTAL Secretary General Mr. - - Broome Newsletter Editor Dr. M. B. Mitchiner, Annual Subscription
ORIENTAL Secretary General Mr. - - Broome Newsletter Editor Dr. M. B. Mitchiner, Annual Subscription
£4-00; 11.11. 18-00; FF. 52: 189 Newsletter number 81 Members news
NUMISMATIC SOCIETY Regional Secretaries General Section: Europe: UK. and Eire: North America: Mr. G. P. Hennequin Dr. H. J. van der Wiel Mr. K. W. Wiggins Dr. Craig Burns December 1982
We are sorry to record the recent death of Dr. Paul Balog in Rome last month. His studies, particularly those
on Mamluke and Ayyubid coinage, will be well known to many members.
The ONS annual accounts are available from the Treasurer, Mr. Vic. Brown. Please send SAE or IRC. Mr. Ken
Wiggins has some Persian coins for disposal; anyone interested may contact him. The coinage of the Mrohaung Dynasty of Arakan: 1430 - 1635 AD Part 1. Coins with legends in Persian only by M. Robinson
In ONS Newsletter no. 77 I described four new coins of the Mrohaung dynasty of Arakan, with dates ranging from 996 BE to the fall of the dynasty in 1146 BE (1784 AD). These coins had a legend in Arakanese letters, repeated on both sides, as was the custom for all the coins from 996 BE onwards. With this additional material, and those listed in my book with Lewis Shaw, ‘The Coins and Banknotes of Burma’ [1], it is believed that the series of coins with Arakanese legends only is now fully catalogued (as far as is known at the present time) apart from minor varieties.
The coins of the earlier part of the dynasty, from 1430 to 1635 AD, are, however, far more difficult to ascribe and/or read the legends. The letters are sometimes crudely formed and those in Persian and Bengali are very hard to read. As a result on San Tha Aung’s ‘Arakanese Coins’ [2] several of the readings given in [1]
from this period need slight correction, and new types were illustrated. These have been further supplementd by specimens recently observed in the collections at the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the American Numismatic Society in New York, or acquired by Dr. R. Domrow and myself. In view of this it
is desirable to look afresh at these early coins, and to give an improved classification. In the light of these problems the series has been split up into three fairly distinct groups; the early type with archaic Persian script from roughly 1430 to 1530, the smaller series with Arakanese/Persian or Arakanese/Bengali script at around 1550, and the trilingual coins with Arakanese, Persian and Bengali script from roughly 1560 to 1622. All these coins are silver. In this first article I shall describe those with Persian script; the other groups will be dealt with in two subsequent papers.
The early history of the Mrohaung dynasty Since early times there have been several dynasties in Arakan (on the west coast of Burma) with capitals at Vesali, Launggyet and Mrohaung. Coins of the ‘bull/trisula’ type were issued by the Vesali dynasty, but there
is no evidence for the use of coinage under the Launggyet dynasty (1250 - 1404). The coin in [2], plate 20,
suggested for this dynasty is, I believe, certainly much later, being of the trilingual type.
During troubled times around 1404, king Narameikla of Arakan was driven from his country and took refuge in Bengal. The Bengal Sultan helped Narameikla to get back the Arakanese throne in 1430 when he founded the new city of Mrohaung, sometimes known at Mrauk-U. He was therefore effectively subservient to the Bengal Sultan and the Moslem religion held great sway at the Arakanese court for many years afterwards. Possibly out of deference to Bengal the Arakanese rulers gave themselves a Moslem title in addition to the Arakanese; in fact some kings seem to have had three or more titles. This may also have been continued for
the benefit of the large Moslem population of Chittagong, which was frequently under Arakanese rule after it had been conquered by Basawpyu in 1459. Note, however, that in the period around 1518 the city was under Bengal with a Bengali, rather than Arakanese, governor. It is also asserted that the Arakanese king was then a
vassal of Bengal, which may possibly have a bearing on the issue of coinage.
The chronology of the country from 1430 to 1530 is somewhat uncertain and differs according to which chronicle is consulted; but I give below the list of kings with their titles and dates both as presented in [2] and in the well-known work by Phayre [3], for the period of interest.
King and titles Date from [2] Date from [3] Narameikla / Min Saw Mun / Saw Mun Khan 1430 - 1433 AD: at Mrohaung 1430 - 1434 Naranu / Min Khari / Ali Khan 1433 - 1459 1434 - 1459 Basawpyu / Kalima Shah 1459 - 1482 1459 - 1482 Min Dawlya / Mawku Shah 1482 - 1492 1482 - 1492 Basawnyo / Mahamauk Shah 1492 - 1494 1492 - 1494
Min Ranaung / Nuri Shah
Salingathu / Thingathu / Thet Kaukdawla Shah Min Raza / Ilias Shah (acc. to [2]) Gazapati / Ilias Shah (acc. to [3]) Min Saw-O / Thirithu / Zala Shah Thazata / Ali Shah Min Khaung Raza
1494 - 1501
1494 - 1501 1501 - 1513 1513-1515 1515-1521 1521-1531 king not listed
With Arakanese coins no two specimens are likely to be absolutely identical. The first coin listed is that
illustrated and the others cited will differ in minor respects. I shall mention first the four coins shown in [1], namely RS 7.1 to RS 7.4, followed by photographs of more recent discoveries. Note that the illustrations from [2] are enlarged. The abbreviations used are - RS = Robinson and Shaw [1]; STA = San Tha Aung [2]; P = Phayre [3]; Ash = Ashmolean; ANS = American Numismatic Society; BM = British Museum.
\[RS 7.1 = P 28: 10.17 gm., 10.00 gm. (BM)\]2. \(RS 7.2 = P 29: 9.62 gm. (BM)\)
\[RS 7.3 = P 30: 9.24 gm. (BM), 9.35 gm. (ANS)\]4. \(RS 7.4 = P31: 5.62 gm. (BM)\)
Obv.: »اا لك الا la ilah illa (Kalima) للك | Allah Mohammed
PE eee) rasul Allah خلل انلك Khailad Allah ككلمل | al Mulkahu There is no God but Allah, Mohammed the Messenger of Allah. May Allah perpetuate his Kingdom Rev.:. دوين ايو JI al rahman abu Pralc المظفر Al-muzaffar Ali Sh(ah) ناطلس تلل Sultan Khallad — Lo dul Allah (? Mulkahu) Sultan Ali Shah, Father of the victorious (and merciful) May Allah perpetuate his Kingdom
This coin is fairly definitely of Thazata / Ali Shah (1515 - 21 AD) Obv. Kalima as 7.1 وميم ف نيع م ا و TOR hi
uba la rsan (7) وبا!sp
Phayre read ‘Ilias Shah’ on the reverse, but this is not certain. If this
reading is correct, then the coin would date from just after 1500 AD.
as OD! 0 (?) cre J
) رسركند = Sikandar Rev. Kalima
The obverse of the ANS specimen is identical to the BM, but extra letters
ننا and Z are visible at 11 and 9 o’clock respectively. The name ‘Sikandar’ is likely, but not certain. Only Min Palaung (1571-93) is known to have used
this title but, on reflection, this seems too late for a coin of this type. San Tha Aung attributed the coin to Salingathu (1494-1501) with the remark that ‘he could have taken the title Sikandar Shah’. No evidence was given.
Phayre claimed to discern the Kalima on the obverse, and on this basis San Tha Aung attributed it to Basawpyu (1459-82) who was known as Kalima Shah; but I cannot make out anything of the legend except the letters ‘u’ and ‘h’ on the RHS.
We now come to the new coins, most of which bear the Kalima on one side. They can be fairly reliably placed
in the period 1430 to 1531, since there is evidence that Min Bin (1531 - 1553) and his followers used Arakanese inscriptions on at least one side of their coins. 5; 9.6 gm. (Domrow), 8.52 gm. (Robinson), STA Pl. 22a (wt.?) Left: unread
- 9.53 gm. (BM), 9.9 gm. (Domrow), STA PI. 22b; 24a (wt. 2) Left: Kalima Right: Kalima
X-ray fluorescence analysis on the 8.52 gm. coin gave a reading of 94% silver, 5.25% copper, 0.29% gold, 0.46% lead. Right: حمل Mohammed / Rahman / Ahmad
Sw beginning of Sikandar? Left: Kalima
Right a>! Ahmad / Rahman?
p> Saw Sikandar
The Ashmolean coin is base silver (13% silver and 87% copper). It seems “5 likely that both 6 and 7 are of Sikandar; and they are very similar to 3.
Finally, three coins from ref. 2 (weights unknown) with diameters probably similar to the other coins of this
type. The other illustrations in [2] are from [3] and have been described already. 8. Left: Kalima Right: unread
Left YY | Abu cn | ed-din > go se… Mahmud سلطا ت Sultan Right: unread
Mahmud could possibly be Mahamauk (1492-94), but I suspect a later date. 10. STApl. 21c.: Left: Allah saheb fil (owner of the elephant)
Right: -_ possibly contains ‘Sultan Taj ed-din’
If Saheb fil is correct, this coin may be of the time of Min Raza Gyi who, in 1601 acquired a white elephant (these coins will be described in part 3). Of course earlier kings may have owned white elephants. In addition, it should be noted that there is no Kalima on coins 9 and 10 and, for this
reason I suggest they may be later than the other coins shown.
This completes the known coins of this group. I should like to thank Richard Plant for help with these coins,
the Ashmolean for permission to reproduce the photograph of no. 7 and Dr. Domrow for supplying photos of