Mughal Aurangzeb silver rupee of Surat and the pirates of the Red Sea

WillieBoyd2

This little coin is a silver rupee of Mughal India minted around AD 1680 at Surat, a city in northwest India.

Surat was the largest and busiest port of the Mughal Empire and also the first port established by the British East India Company in India.

Mughal silver rupee of Aurangzeb, Surat mint, AH 1091 (AD 1680)
Regnal year 24
Silver, 24 mm, 11.49 gm, Krause KM 300.86

The coin inscriptions are in Persian using Arabic letters.

Obverse:

شاہ اورنگزیب عالمگیر

سکه زد چو بدر منیر

در جهان

Shah Aurangzeb Alamgir (Ruler, throne ornament, universe grasper)
Sikkah zad chu badr monir (Coin struck like the full moon shining)
Dar Jahan (Throughout the World)

Reverse:

ميمنت مانوس

سنه ۲۴ جلوس

ضرب سورت

Maimanet Manus (Associated with prosperity)
Sanat 24 Julus (Year 24 of reign)
Zarb Surat (Struck at Surat)

Aurangzeb Alamgir, whose names meant in Persian "Ornament of the Throne and Conqueror of the World", lived from AD 1618 to 1707 or almost 90 years, and was the Mughal Emperor of India from AD 1658 to 1707.

He was the son of Shah Jahan (of the Taj Mahal fame) and managed to lock up his father and take over the throne. He was sometimes known to the British as the "Grand Mogul".

Aurangzeb official accession date was the ninth month of the Islamic or Anno Hegirae (AH) calendar, Ramadan 1 1068 or AH 1068-9-1.

The coin's regnal year of 24 means that it was struck after AH 1091-9-1 or in the last three months of the year. Aurangzeb had a total of 47 different mints working during his reign.

The British East India Company was founded in AD 1600 to engage in trade with the East Indies. It opened a port at Surat in AD 1619 and began acquiring land in India for facilities.

The Mughal rulers of India sometimes had problems with the East India Company, they even had a war which resulted in EOC officials apologizing to the Emperor Aurangzeb.

When Aurangzeb came to the throne, Mughal coins had Islamic religious inscriptions on them such as "There is no god but Allah" and "Muhammad is his messenger".

Aurangzeb was a devout Muslim and, worried that an infidel would step on the "Word of God" laying on the ground, had the inscriptions removed and replaced by "Persian couplets", simple slogans like "coin struck like shining full moon".

Aurangzeb was an absolute monarch and one wonders what would have happened if an American President tried to remove "In God We Trust" from coins.

This kind of rupee figured in a famous pirate story.

The Pirates of the Red Sea, not as famous as the ones in the Caribbean, but in some ways more successful. The "Red Sea" was an old name for the ocean now known as the "Arabian Sea" or "Indian Ocean".

A British pirate named Henry Every had a ship called the "Fancy" which patrolled the ocean between Africa and India looking for merchant ships.

In 1695 he attacked a Mughal ship, the "Ganj Sawai" which meant something like "Ship full of treasure". The ship was carrying wealthy Muslims back from the Mecca religious pilgrimage and Every got away with several hundred thousand silver rupees and gold mohurs along with jewels and other loot.

The pirate crew behaved badly on the Mughal ship and when the Emperor Aurangzeb heard that the pirates were British he had his soldiers arrest the British merchants in India.

Eventually a deal was worked out with the British paying Aurangzeb a large indemnity and launching a world-wide manhunt for Every and his crew.

Some American colonial governors would protect pirates for a fee. Many of Every's crew and possibly Every himself went to America but had problems because the unusual money they had was "hot" and easy to recognize.

Some crew members were rounded up, taken to Britain, tried, and hung, but Every disappeared. Every probably didn't leave a "treasure"; pirates usually spent their money.

This little related item arrived recently, also minted in AH 1091 but at Aurangabad.

Mughal gold mohur of Aurangzeb, Aurangabad mint, AH 1091 (AD 1680)
Regnal year 2x
Gold, 21 mm, 10.97 gm, Krause KM 315.11

The legends on this coin are the same as on the silver rupee except that this coin is "struck like shining sun" instead of "struck like shining full moon".

Also only the first digit '2' of the regnal year is visible, the regnal year can be "23" or "24" depending on when in AH 1091 it was struck.

Aurangabad is a city in western India and home of the famous Ajanta Buddhist cave monuments and the Ellora Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monastery-temple caves.

And a final note about Surat rupees:

A large number of Surat rupees were found near Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in 1963 by underwater treasure hunters. A trading ship belonging to the Emperor Aurangzeb sank around AD 1703 near the Great Basses reef southeast of the island. One of the group was the science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke who lived in Sri Lanka at the time and who wrote a book about the adventure entitled The Treasure of the Great Reef which was published in 1964.

Weiss

Love rupees. An underappreciated series. I think the inability of westerners to read the beautiful script hurts their collectability in the US at least. That gold mohur is really stunning, @WillieBoyd2.

I noticed that HA has been auctioning off a bunch of identical, beautiful, high-grade NCG certified Bengal Presidency rupees. I suspect it was part of a hoard. If anyone has info, I'd love to hear it!

BillyKingsley

Love the history lesson. Although I'm familiar with Aurangzeb's name I didn't know much about him, honestly have a hard time with that part of the world. (Weiss is right in his theory in my case)