The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins (ad
1205-1576)
By- Syed Ejaz Hussain
The book presents a comprehensive account of the
politico-economic history of Bengal, from ad
1205 to 1576. It has made extensive use of coins and epigraphs to interpret and
substantiate the historical narrative culled out from the contemporaneous
chronicles and travelogues.
The first six chapters trace the political history.
The topics like the date of Bakhtiyar Khalji’s conquest of Bengal; the rule of
the Governors and later of the independent Sultans; Bengal’s relations with the
neighboring kingdoms; and its role in the regional politics and economy in
different phases of history, have been discussed in the light of some hitherto
untapped historical material. The debate of Bengal’s isolation from the north
and south India has also been revisited.
The seventh chapter traces the administrative
hierarchy, power and functions of the state functionaries while in the eighth
chapter the economy of the region, inter-local, coastal and foreign trade as
well as the currency pattern have been described.
The entire narrative is enriched by a corpus of rare
coins spread over 32 plates. Two appendices, the first giving the revised
chronology of the rulers of Bengal, and the second listing the mint towns,
together with thematic maps, make the book a veritable reference work for
medieval Indian history and numismatics.
Dr Syed Ejaz
Hussain belongs to the family of late Syed Luqman Haider, a devotee of
education and learning, who founded the Town High School at Ara (Bihar) as
early as 1882. In 1983, he topped in M.A. (History) from Magadh University,
Bodh-Gaya and was awarded gold medal. He obtained Ph.D. degree in History from
Patna University, Patna in 1991. Dr Ejaz has contributed a number of research
papers in national and international conferences as well as in learned
journals. He has toured extensively in India and abroad and has consulted the
coin-cabinets such as those of the American Numismatic Society, New York; the
British Museum, London and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He has also received the Charles Wallace
(India) Trust Fellowship to study the Sultanate coins in the collection of the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and is preparing a Catalogue of the said series.
Presently Dr Ejaz teaches History in Visva-Bharati University,
Santiniketan.
ISBN
81-7304-482-1 2003
486p. Rs.1100/Pounds 90
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