SHER SHAH (1540 - 1556)

Farid surnamed Sher Shah was the grandson of Ibrahim Sur.  Ibrahim Sur had come to India during Bahlol Lodi's reign in search of employment and managed to join the service in Panjab. Farid's father Hassan loved his youngest wife, but not the eldest whose son Farid was.  During this unhappy period, Farid went to Jaunpur and worked to learn Persian and Arabic books.  Fascinated by Farid, Jalal Khan offered Farid a employment.

A keen observer Farid acquired the skill of managing Jagir and was given the jagir of Sahsaram by Ibrahim Lodi, but had to give it away to his step-mother who had challenged Farid.  Farid then took up servicde under Bahar Khan Lohani, the ruler of Bihar who made Farid the tutor of Jalal Khan (the son of Bahar), and gave the title "Sher Khan".  Impressed by Sher Khan, Bahar Khan made him the deputy governor of South Bihar.  The rise of Sher Khan was disliked by the nobles of Lohani and hence drove him away of possession of tghe same.

During this helpless condition, Sher Khan joined Babur and rendered him a good service and got the lost Jagir back.  During this [period, Sher Khan acquired the skill of ruler and experienced the defects of Moghal.  As he could not drag on the vanity of Moghals, left the service and managed to become a tutor of Jalal Khan!  After the death of ruler of South Bihar, Sher Khan was appointed the deputy governor of Vakil and during this period, he won the hearts of nobles and follower.

In 1529, Mohammed Lodi tried his luck to defeat Humayun with the help of Sher Khan, but fouled by putting Sher Khan in utter trouble.  Chunar was lost to Humayun, but was given back to Sher Khan by taking his 500 troops to deal with Bahadur Shah of Gujarat.  Thus Bihar became a Moghal vessel ruled by Jalal under governorship of Sher Khan.  Soon after Jalal's mother's death, power came to Sher Khan's hands.

The very next year, Sher Khan had to face trouble from the ruler of Bengal which resulted in a battle at Surajgarh, which Sher Khan finaly won.  The victory was a turning point in Sher Khan's life as it enhanced his military and financial power.  Bengal was subsequently (1537) added to his territory.

Alarmed at the activities of Sher Khan, Humayun marched to Chunar and besiezed it in 1537.  It is the same time, when Humayun was busy with the conquest of Chunar, Sher Khan conquered the territory between Menghis and Gaur. But later on  Sher Khan arrived at a amicable settlement to rule Bengal only and give control of Bihar to Humayun.  When Humayun tried to breach the settlement, Sher Shah managed to establish his control over territory between Delhi and Bihar.  In 1539, Humayun was utterly defeated in the battle of Chausa and Sher Shah firmy footed his dynasty, which is known as "Sur Dynasty".

Slowly, Sher Shah conquered Malwas, Raisin, Multan, Sindh and Jodhpur.  His last expedition to Kalinjar proved him fatal when he died of the explosion which was set by his troops to blast the port of Kalinjar.  During his reign, he took care of his subjects very well, he looked into every minute details of adminstrationfor the betterment of his subjects.  He took great personal interest while recruiting his troops which was his key strength.  Sher Shah did all the best he could do to add to his resources.  Land, revenue, Jijya (heirless property), commerce, mint, customs etc, were the other sources of his income.  Currency system was in bad condition at the time of accession to throne.  Sher Shah introduced a new called "Dam" and abolished the system of mixed metal currency.  A ration between the coins of various metals were fixed  The names of the coins were in Devanagari script  The gold rupees were introduced which equated to sixty four dams.  Sher Shah was the greatest of Muslim ruler of India.  Other than Akbar, no other Indian Muslim rulers could be praised with the same words.
 

ISLAM SHAH (1545 - 1553)

When Sher Shah died, he left two sons, Adil and Jalal.  Both were away at the time of Sher Shah'sdeath and Jalal reached first to ascend the throne, superseding Adil.

Like his father, he had ability and energy to manage the country and Sher Shah had already put the system in place.  But because of suspecious character, Islam Shah confronted with nobles who were the very cause of his father's success.  Systematically, Islam Shah destroyed all the Afghan nobles.  Though unpopular, he managed to rule in iron bonds, but did not put any effort to hold Afghans together, which became the caues for the break up of his kingdom later.
 

MUHAMMAD ADIL (1553 - 1557)

The successor Firuz, the son of Islam Shah was put to death by Mubariz Khan.  Mubariz Khan took up the title of Muhammad Adil and ruled for the next four years with ignorance and course debauchery.

THE COINAGE

The credit for the introduction of RUPEE goes to Sher Shah Suri.  Suri's gold coins are very rare, his rupees are broad with the obverse in the style of Humayun's silver and reverse with his name in a square or circular part alongwith the mint date.  It carries the legend May God perpetuate his kingdom and a Hindi legend bearing his name, with the periphery engraved with his special titles and the mint name.

Islam Shah and Adil Shah's coins carries a mysterious Arabic figure 477, in the margin.  Few coins of Islam Shah are square, the lower denominations of rupees of this ruler are very rare. Copper coins bear the legend "In the name of the commander of the faithful, the protector of the religion of the Requiter" on the obverse and reverse carries the title and mint name of the ruler.

The last rulers Muhammad Adil, Sikander and Ibrahim struck coins in their name, but they are very rare.

LAST UPDATED 1st Nov 2001
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