Legends on both sides: Ghiyas shah bin mahmud shah khalji / al kabriya lillah. Date off flan. Made of high quality silver. 11mmx11mm, 1.25 grams. "The coins of the Indian Sultanates" M-78.Small silver fraction from Malwa are quite a bit scarcer than the tankas or half-tankas.The sacking of Delhi by the Mongol conqueror Timur in the early fifteenth century caused the breakup of that sultanate into smaller states, and in 1401 Dilawar Khan, previously Malwa's governor under the rule of Delhi, declared himself sultan of Malwa. He established a capital at Mandu, high in the Vindhya Range, overlooking the Narmada River valley. His son and successor Hoshang Shah (1405-1435) embellished Mandu. Hoshang Shah's son Ghazni Khan ruled for only a year, and was suceeded by Sultan Mahmud Khalji (1436-1469), first of the Khalji sultans of Malwa, who expanded the state to include portions of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and the Deccan. The Muslim sultans invited Rajputs to settle in the country. In the early 1500's the sultan sought the aid of the sultans of Gujarat to counter the growing power of the Rajputs, while the Rajputs sought the aid of the Sesodia Rajput kings of Mewar. Gujarat stormed Mandu in 1518 and 1531, and shortly thereafter the Malwa sultanate collapsed. The Mughalemperor Akbar captured Malwa in 1562, and made it a province of his empire. Mandu was abandoned by the seventeenth century.
