The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c18.49

c18.49

It is for the introduction of a basic silver coinage that Iltutmish's reign is considered as marking the commencement of Indo-Muslim monetary system. This coin, the ancestor of the modern *rupee*, was the *tankah*, an Indian term indicating a weight of silver, whose earliest use to signify a currency piece is found in a bilingual silver *dirham* of Mahmud of Ghazni, struck at Mahmudpur (Lahore) in 1027⁶. But the Delhi *tankah* was not a *dirham* to whom, except the form and the legend, it bore no intrinsic relationship. For, what made the *tankah* exclusive-