Iran AH 1167 abbasi KM-476.1
This specimen was lot 2664 in Stephen Album sale 39 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2021), where it sold for $240. The catalog description[1] noted, "HOTAKI: Azad Khan, 1750-1757, AR abbasi, Qazwin, AH1167, Shi 'ite kalima reverse, with the 12 Imams cited in the surrounding margin, lovely strike, beautiful toning, VF-EF, R." This type was struck AH 1167-1168. The Hotak dynasty were Pashtuns from Afghanistan who briefly conquered an empire including eastern Iran and most of Pakistan before being overthrown by Nadir Shah. Azad Khan was a later chieftain who attempted to reestablish Hotak hegemony. Wikipedia comments, "Azād Khān Afghān (Pashto: آزاد خان افغان), or Azād Shāh Afghān (آزاد شاه افغان) (died 1781), was a Pashtun military commander and a major contender for supremacy in western Iran after the death of Nader Shah Afshar in 1747. Azad rose to power between 1752 and 1757, and controlled part of the Azerbaijan region up to Urmia city, northwestern and northern Persia, and parts of southwestern Turkmenistan and eastern Kurdistan. Azad was a contemporary of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of the Durrani Empire." Of Azad Khan's rivals, the Qajars were in the mountains south of the Caspian Sea and the Durrani lurked in the east, in Afghanistan. The Zand realm was disintegrating in central Iran.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 4.6 g, silver, this specimen 4.50 g.
Catalog reference: A-2730, KM-476.1.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- Album, Stephen. Checklist of Islamic Coins. Santa Rosa, 1998. Stephen Album.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 39, featuring the John Sylvester, Jr., Collection of Annamese Medals and Orders, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2020.
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