Dr. John Deyell, a renowned numismatic historian and a Canadian diplomat of distinction, delivered Professor Mohammad Habib Memorial Lecture in the staff lounge, faculty of Arts, under the auspices of the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University on March 28. His lecture covered ‘coinages of Delhi and Bengal Sultanates’.
In his lecture, Dr. Deyell drew attention to the fact that Indian coinage system was entirely different from the West Asian during 7-12th centuries. He said that there was a scarcity of gold or silver coins in northern India during that period. While, Islamic coinages, on the other hand, were based on gold and silver coins, which are found in profusion. In Central Asia, silver coins predominated. With the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, while ‘book money’ continued, gold and silver coins (tankas) began to be minted from Iltutmish’s time (1210-36) onwards, along with copper money (Jital).