Persia (Post-Mongol). Timurids. Shah Rukh I, AH 807-850 / AD 1405-1447. Tanka (Silver, 19 mm, 5.20 g, 1 h), fifth coinage, sunni type, Sultaniyah, AH 842 = AD 1438/9. Within circle, in two lines: lā ilāha illā Allāh / Muḥammad rasūl Allāh (‘There is no deity but God / Muhammad is the Messenger of God’ in Arabic). Around, the names of the four Rashidun caliphs with their titles: Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq / ʿUmar al-Fārūq / ʿUthmān Dhū al-Nūrayn / ʿAlī al-Murtaḍā. Rev. zarb-i al-sulṭān al-aʿẓam Shāhrukh Bahādur khallada Allāh mulkahu wa-sulṭānahu fī Sulṭāniya sana 842 (‘The supreme sultan Shāhrukh Bahādur, may God perpetuate his kingdom and sovereignty, struck at Sultaniyah in the year eight hundred and forty two’ in Arabic and Persian). Album 2405. Rare type. Some deposits and minor flan faults on the edge, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.


This variety is noteworthy for giving the names of the four Rashidun caliphs with their honorific titles, rather than the names alone. This combination of obverse and reverse arrangement appears to be rare among comparable issues of Shāhrukh’s Sultaniyah coinage.