History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c6.99

c6.99

Kaikaus was a grandson of Balban, a fact which is supported by Amir Khusrau and Ibn Batutah. An inscription dated 697 A.H. of Kaikaus found among the ruins at Ganga Rampur near Dinajpur clearly shows that Kaikaus was the son of Muhammad, son of the emperor. Edward Thomas has given a translation of the inscription in his Chronicles, p. 149. For coins of Kaikaus see Thomas, Chronicles, pp. 49, 193, 194. J. A. S. B., 1860, p. 234. Mr. Stap'eon thinks that Kaikaus possibly issued his first coin in 690 A.H. This date is to be found on Bengal coin No. 8 of the Indian Museum Cabinet the inscription on which runs thus :—This silver coin was struck at (Hazrat) Lakhnauti from (?) the land tax of Banga in the year 690 A.H. But we must note that issuing a coin and assuming the position of a Sultan are two different things J. A. S. B., 1922, XVIII, pp. 410-11. It is clear from an inscription from Sylhet that Shams-al-din Firuz was ruler of Bengal at least in the year 703 A.H. for the inscription says that " The first conquest (of Sylhet) by Islam of the town 'Arsah Srihat was by the hand of Sikandar Khan Ghazi, in the time of Sultan Firuz Shah Dihlwi in the year 703." A facsimile of this inscription has been published in the J. A. S. B., 1922, XVIII, p. 413.