Rare light fals, Bahadur Shah (1597-1601), Khandesh Sultanate, India (GG-KH4)

Al wathiq billah al-mannan abu'l fat'h nasir al-dunya wa'l din Bahadur Shah bin Adil Shah al-Sultan spread on both sides (reading upward). 18mm, 10.36 grams. ND, NM. Goron and Goenka "The Coins of the Indian Sultanates" #KH3.

The coins of Khandesh are all rare to very rare. The heavy fals is rated RR in Goron/Goenka. Only a few different types of coins were struck, all in copper. The metrology is really unclear - Goron and Goenka listed the denominations of Bahadur as a fals and half fals (17g and 8.5 grams), however this cannot be correct, as all the coins seem to weigh around 17.3 grams and 10.4 grams respectively. It is likely they are not "fals" and "half fals", but represent a "heavy" fals and a "reduced" fals - perhaps there was a monetary reform during Bahadur's reign.

The Farooqi dynasty was the ruling dynasty of the Khandesh Sultanate (named after the Khandesh region) from its inception in 1382 till its annexation by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1601. The founder of the dynasty, Malik Raja, participated in a rebellion against the Bahmani ruler Muhmmad Shah I. When he was compelled to flee from Deccan, he established in Thalner on the Tapti River in Maharashtra. After receiving the grant of the fiefdoms of Thalner and Karanda from Firuz Shah Tughluq of Delhi in 1370, he conquered the region around Thalner, which later became known as Khandesh (the land of the Khans). By 1382, he started ruling independently.