History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s8.1

v3.c33.s8.1

We find the following interesting information from a paper by Mr. Thomas in J. R. A. S. IX p. 67 and XVII p. 157. It may be stated that every king in Ghazni, and generally in India, struck coins in his name commemorating his coming to the throne. We, therefore, find coins of Alptagin, Sabuktagin, Ismail and Mahmud showing that they became kings in Ghazni in this order. But in all these coins the name of the Sāmāni emperor, Mansur or Nuh, is also inscribed showing that they were subordinate kings of the Sāmāni empire. Mahmud first assumed independence as his coin dated 389 H. (1000 A. D.) first omits the mention of a Sāmāni king. The first coins of Mahmud describe him as Saif-ud-dowla a title given him by Nuh in 389H. (995 A. D.) then as Al-Amir-Yamin-ud-dowlat-va-Amin-ul-millat, a title given him by the Khalifa, later as Malik-ul-mamālik, and finally simply as Mahmud without any title when he had really become so great as to require no titles. He never calls himself, strangely enough, Sultan or Ghāzi. The title Sultan first appears in the coins of Ibrahim (coins 4652 H. or 1061 A. D.)