Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 2001. Estimate $600.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Mughal Emperors. Muhayyi ud-Din Muhammad Shah Aurangzeb Alamgir. 1658-1707. AV Mohur (10.91 gm, 3h). Shajahanabad mint. Dated AH 1074, RY 6 (1663/4 AD). Legend with titles of Aurangzeb; AH date / Legend with titles, regnal year and mint (on first line). KM 315.42; cf. Wright 1141 (AH 1073); Hull 1700. EF, full legends on a broad flan. ($600)

The Mughal emperors, although nominally following the Islamic faith of their Timurid ancestors, lived lives of glorious excess and conspicuous consumption, while generally tolerating the other faiths that existed side by side with the Muslims. This changed with the accession of Aurangzeb, son of Shah Jahan, who killed his elder brother and heir apparent Dara Sikoh and imprisoned his father at Agra. Aurangzeb was an ascetic and fanatically pious Muslim, banning music, dancing, drinking and figural art from the Mughal court. His harsh measures directed at non-Muslims included higher taxes, destruction of temples and the execution of religious leaders. The dissent these actions sparked led to the great Maratha revolt lead by Shivaji, regarded as the beginning of the end of the Mughal empire. Aurangzeb led a personally modest life, making haj caps and copying texts from the Quran for sale to pilgrims to finance his simple court life. He died at the age of ninety in 1707, morose and unloved, and was buried in a plain mausoleum.

Aurangzeb's religious strictures influenced his coinage also. He removed the Kalima or Shahada, the sacred lines from the Quran that had graced Islamic coins since the eight century. This had actually been the subject of much debate from the beginning of the Muslim period. Certain interpreters of Islam felt that the sacred words should not be placed on mundane objects such as coins, where they could be damaged, lost and trod under foot, or even worse, handled by infidels.