The end of the 8th century marked the arrival of Islams in India. It was in 10th century AD, the second islamic invasion of India took place, carried by Mahmud of Gazni. Mahmud invaded India 17 times, mainly for the acquisition of `wealth of Hindustan`. He took control of of Punjab and later sacked rich city of central India and capital of many of the post-Gupta dynasties, Kanyakubj (modern Kannauj). His silver coins are special in Indian numismatics as they have his name written on coins in two different languages. On obverse legends are in Arabic but on reverse the legends are in Sanskrit, written in Devnagri script! The legend on reverse reads Avyaktamekam Muhammad Avatar Nrupati Mahmud in center and around it, the legends reads Avyaktiya Name Ayam Tankam Hato Mahmudpur Sanvanto 418. Obviously, the local population did not know Arabic, a foreign language and this fact made him issue these bilingual coins.

Dehli Sultanate, Turks, Muizz-Ud-Din Muhammad I bin Sam, 1173 to 1206 AD, gold, Bayana. Muhammad I bin Sam went even further than his Ghaznavid predecessors when he struck gold coins bearing on one side the Hindu goddess Lakshmi and on the other his name in Nagari script. Two very interesting coins, both inspired again by the traditionnal "Bull and horseman" type. They are exceptional because the first woman who ever ruled India struck them: Razziyya, daughter of Iltutmish who said that she was more able than others to succeed him. On the previous coin, she was called "The great sultan Radiyya al-din daughter of the sultan". On this one, she is simply called "Razziyya, the supreme Sultan.

Far from Delhi, governors appointed by the Sultans of Delhi from 1203 to 1338 ruled Bengal. The period of Delhi supremacy ended with the revolt of Fakhr-ud-Din Mubarak Shah in 1338. Bengal Sultanate, Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Shah, 1415 to 1432 AD issued a silver tanka, a beautiful coin with the superb calligraphic design characteristic of this ruler, here on both sides of the coin.

The splitting of the empire of Muhammad bin Tughluq led also to the creation in 1403 AD of the Gujarat sultanate. The coins of this sultanate were struck following a metrology with two parallel standards called today the "Gujarat standard" and the "Delhi standard", probably to facilitate trade between the Gujarati ports and the then enclaved Delhi sultanate.

The famous coins called dehiwals with the humped bull and the king`s name in Nagri characters on the reverse and the chauhan horseman on the obverse were minted copiously by almost every sultan until the reign of Alauddin Masud (1241-46), who discontinued this type.

The coins struck in bullion by the early sultans are uniform in size and weight. Other foreign invaders who attacked the areas in West Pakistan during the 13th century also struck bullion coins of the bull and horseman type. These sultans had many mints. Muhammad Bin Tughlaq (1325-51), the most celebrated king of the Tughlaq dynasty, was the first Muslim ruler who revolutionized the coinage. He paid serious attention to the reform of his coinage and established several mints in various cities of his kingdom. His experiments with his coinage, particularly his forced currency, give him a prominent place among the greatest moneyers of history. He has been called the "the prince of moneyers".

Muhammad bin Tughlaq issued coins of more than twenty-five varieties in copper and bullion. The inscriptions on some of these mention their various denominations. He struck a new coin of 140 ratis and called it adli. This remained the standard denomination throughout his reign. He also divided the tanka into several parts, the du-kani, shash kani, hasht kani, dwazda kani, etc.

The coinage of succeeding kings of the Tughlaq dynasty has little of special interest. The gold coins of Firoz Shah Tughlaq are fairly common, but later kings issued mainly copper and bullion; their gold coins are extremely rare. In 1526, Babar, who founded the dynasty of the great Mughals, defeated the last Lodhi king, Ibrahim. The coins of Babur and Humayun, especially the silver shahrukhis followed the Timurid devices and were struck at Lahore, Delhi, Agra and Kabul. On the obverse of these coins is the Kalima with the names of the four orthodox caliphs and their attributes in the margins. On the reverse is the king`s name in the area, together with various titles and the name of the mint and the date.

Sher Shah, the founder of the Suri dynasty who defeated Humayun in 1540 and ruled the country for about five years, is credited with introducing a reformed currency. He abolished the inconvenient bullion coinage of mixed metals and struck well-executed pieces in gold, silver and copper, with a fixed standard of weight. His silver rupees have a standard weight of 178 grains, while copper dams weighed 330 grains. He also standardized the sub-division of the rupee and the dam. The coins, especially the silver pieces, bear the usual Arabic inscriptions as well as the name of the king in the Nagri script. Sher Shah also established a number of new mints in his kingdom.

With Akbar`s succession in 1556 a new era of coinage began in the subcontinent. Akbar established a separate department and appointed a mint master at the capital to control the minting of coins. The first master of the mint was Khwaja Abdus Samad who was an eminent painter and calligrapher. The early issues of his reign closely follow the model and scheme of Sher Shah`s coins. The Ilahi coins of Akbar are the most interesting series. These depict the religious and social changes in Akbar`s policy. He used the coinage to express his views about the "divine religion." The Ilahi coins issued from Lahore were some of the finest of the Mughal series. The coins bear entirely new legends and are inscribed with the Islamic verse "Allahu Akbar Jalla Jalaohu." Akbar also started the innovation of using Persian couplets on his coins, which indicate his name or the mint and date.

Jehangir (1605-1627) maintained on the whole his father`s mint system. His gold and silver coins are the most ornate of all the Mughal series. His deep and abiding affection for his beautiful queen Nur Jehan is also evident from the coins he struck in his later days. Issued mainly from Lahore, Agra and Surat, the coins bear the name of the Queen along with that of Jehangir in the usual Persian couplets. Jehangir`s most celebrated muhrs are those, which bear his portrait. In the 13th year, he issued the beautiful series of zodiac muhrs on which pictorial representations of the zodiac symbol were substituted for the name of the month. The coins of Aurangzeb (1658-1707) and his successors have, with few exceptions, no novelty, except that the emperor discontinued the Kalima on his coins, and dates were given in Hijri years. During the later period, pretentious personal titles were frequently shown on the coins. The downfall of the Mughal Empire brought chaos in the coinage.