Scarce silver dirham of Mohamed bin Mahmud (1030), Ghazna, Ghaznavids

Arabic inscription:  Safar / kalima in 3 lines / al-Qadir Billah // Lillah / Muhammad rasul Allah / Jalal ud-Daula / wa Jamal al-Milla / abu-Ahmad. 19mm, 2.80 grams. Ghazna mint. Cf. 275763; Album 1617;  Wilkes 1712.

Rare short-lived ruler - in 1030 he ruled for only five months following the death of Mahmud, and was dethroned, blinded and imprisoned by his twin brother Mas'ud. 

The Ghaznavid Empire was one of the greatest medieval Islamic Empires. The Ghaznavid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Turkic mamluk origin, at their greatest extent ruling large parts of Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, much of Transoxiana and the northwest Indian subcontinent from 977 to 1186. The dynasty was founded by Sabuktigin upon his succession to rule of the region of Ghazna after the death of his father-in-law, Alp Tigin, who was a breakaway ex-general of the Samanid Empire from Balkh, north of the Hindu Kush in Greater Khorasan. .