(sold for $32.0)

1389, India, Bengal Sultanate, Sikandar Shah. Broad Silver Tanka Coin. XF!

Reference: CIS B192.
Mint Place: Firuzabad
Denomination: AR Tanka
Mint Period: 1357-1389 AD (AH 759-792)
Condition: A well struck XF with nice old cabinet-toning!
Weight: 10.62gm
Diameter: 31mm
Material: Silver

The Bengal Sultanate refers to an independent medieval Islamic state established in Bengal in 1342. Its realm and influence extended across modern-day Bangladesh, East India and West Burma. Several dynasties ruled over Bengal Sultanate sequentially. It disintegrated at the end of the 16th-century and was absorbed into the pan-South Asian Mughal Empire and the Arakanese Kingdom of Mrauk U.

Sikandar Shah (reigned 1358–1390) was the second Sultan of the Ilyas dynasty of Bengal. He succeeded his father Ilyas Shah. He built the celebrated Adina Mosque in Pandua in 1368.

The most significant event of his reign was the second Bengal expedition by Delhi Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq. A Persian noble, Zafar Khan Fars, son-in-law of Sultan Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah (ex-ruler of Sonargaon), reached Delhi after fleeing from Bengal. Firuz Shah declared him the legitimate ruler of Bengal and on his instigation, Firuz Shah personally led his army consisting of 80,000 cavalry, 470 elephants and a sizeable infantry to Bengal in 1359. Sikandar, like his father, took shelter in the island fortress of Ekdala and Firuz Shah besieged the place. But ultimately, Firuz Shah had to pull out his army from Bengal after concluding a treaty with Sikandar Shah.

Sikandar had seventeen sons by his first wife and one by his second. The latter revolted against his father and occupied Satgaon and Sonargaon. Finally, in a battle in Goalpara, near the capital Pandua, he defeated his father and killed him in 1390. He ascended to the throne as Ghiyas-ud-Din Azam Shah.

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