The TIMURIDS
    Timur Gurkan was born in 1335 in Kesh, a town near Samarqand, Uzbekistan.   His family was secondary relatives of the Chagatay Mongols, direct descendants of Chigis Khan.  Wounds received during a youthful prank (sheep rustling) left him lame, hence his epithet "Timur-i-lang," which means just that in Farsi, Europeanized to "Tamerlane."   His intelligence applied to military affairs and scheming brought him the viziership of the Chagatay rulers, who made him governor of Transoxiana (Kirghizstan, more or less).  Timur's power grew as that of the Chagatay waned, and he embarked on a career of conquest that took him to Delhi in the east and Anatolia in the west.  On the death of the last Chagatay 1397 Timur declared himself supreme.  On his death in 1405 most of his conquests broke away.  Descendants ruled a reduced domain centered in Afghanistan, with branches in Khorasan (eastern Iran), and later subdivisions of those regions.  The lords of many of these branches issued coins.  By the end of the 15th century the Timurids had pretty much run their course.

TIMURID, Sultan Mahmud of Khorasan, 1469-95, silver tanka, 25mm, A-2455, c/m 'ADL SULTAN MAHMUD, on Abu Sa'id coin o/s on Shah Rukh, Lahijan 827 AH (1424 AD), rare with so much clear, hole, VF $45.00 sold
Click picture for enlargement.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

TIMURID, Shah Rukh, 1405-47, copper fals, A-3274 series, Andarabad (Afghanistan), 837 AH (1433), date written out in Arabic, F $33.00 sold
Click picture for enlargement.
    Andarabad is a rare mint.  Current classification schemes like to put Central Asian coppers of this period in a "civic" category as opposed to "royal" coins in silver and gold that bore the ruler's name on them.  Well, sure, why not, but if there's a date and a mint then you know who was running that country at that time, so why make things more complicated?  Answer is that any classification scheme is a mauling of reality.  Chop the corners off so the facts will fit in your box.  After all, the copper mints were leased to the highest bidder, who struck the coins to pay off the invoice and the taxes, and who did he buy that mint from in the first place?  So?
 
 

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