Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1707. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $350. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Mughal Empire. Muhayyi al-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir. 1658-1707. AV Mohur (10.99 g, 12h). Ahsanabad mint. Dated AH 1114; RY 47 (1702/3 AD). "Struck money through the world like the shining sun, Shah Aurangzeb Alamgir"; AH date / Legend with regnal year and mint, floret symbol. Cf. Wright 1120; Hull 1675; BMC -; KM 315.3. EF. ($500)

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 exÉcution 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.