From Slave to Sultan

[Sulla80]

a countinuously maintained version of this post is avialable on SullaCoins.com with additional references, coins and images.

https://www.sullacoins.com/post/from-slave-to-sultan

"Lion Passant" is sometimes used to describe the lion on this coin - there are only about a dozen on ACSearch and this coin is in pretty nice condition for the type.  The lion (any image) unusual on an Islamic coin.

 

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "The Lion of Egypt : Sultan Baybars I and the Near East in the thirteenth century"

Here's my recently acquired dirham of Baybars I.

Islamic, Mamluks. al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars I. AH 658-676 / AD 1260-1277. AR Dirham (21.7mm, 2.28g, 3h). al-Quahira (Cairo) mint. Dated in marginal legend on the reverse.

Obv: Naskh legend: al-Salihi | al-sultan al-malik | al-Zahir Rukn al-Dunya wa al-Din | Baybars qasim amir al-mu'minin

(The good | Sultan, Prince, | Manifest Pillar of the World and of the Faith | Baybars, associate of the Commander of the Faithful);

below, lion passant left flanked by three pellets

Rev: Naskh legend: la ilah illa Allah | Muhammad rasuluallah | arsalahu bi'l-huda (There is no diety except God | Muhammad is the messenger of God | He sent him with guidance); marginal legend, counterclockwise from the top gives mint and year struck.

Sultan al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari, known more concisely as Baybars I, was a formidable figure from the 13th century.  He ruled as the Sultan of Egypt and Syria from 1260 until his death in 1277.  Baybars I was born in 1223, north of the Black Sea, a Kipchak Turk. After the Mongol invasion of Kipchak in about 1242, he was sold into slavery. 

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "The Lion of Egypt : Sultan Baybars I and the Near East in the thirteenth century"

He eventually become a Mamluk guard, a military class composed of enslaved people who converted to Islam and were trained as soldiers.  Baybars' military skill and leadership set him apart, and when he graduated from his military training he became commander of bodyguards for of Ayyubid Sultan al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb.

The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254)

Baybars defeated the crusaders in February 1250, as commander of the Ayyūbid army at the city of Al-Manṣūrah.  In this defeat Louis IX of France was captured and returned in exchange for a large ransom. The Mamluks killed the Ayyubid sultan, Al-Muazzam Turanshah, on May 2, 1250.

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "https://archive.org/details/lionofegyptsulta0000thor/page/38/mode/2up"

After the death of the Ayyubid sultan, Shajar al-Durr, the respected wife of Turanshah's predecessor, al-Salih, was named as sultan. She was quickly married and by outward appearances was replaced by "the first" Mamluk sultan: Izz al-Din Aybak.  It seems she retained the authority. (a version of this story here which could also be titled "from slave to sultan" : https://www.worldhistory.org/Shajara_al-Durr/)

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "https://archive.org/details/lionofegyptsulta0000thor/page/44/mode/2up"

There is at least one coin of Shajar al-Durr, held by the British Museum (not my coin):

Image from the The Trustees of the British Museum under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Baybars, with a dispute between Mamluk groups, left for Syria where he stayed until 1260 when the third Mamluk sultan, Qutuz, brought him back to Egypt.

Defeat of the Mongols

Baybars is perhaps best remembered for his decisive victory at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, where his forces defeated the Mongols, effectively halting their westward expansion into the Islamic world. After this victory he overthrew the third Mamluk sultan, Qutuz,  and became the fourth. There were several reported reasons for Baybars and Qutuz to quarrel - I will share one version here:

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "https://archive.org/details/lionofegyptsulta0000thor/page/78/mode/2up"

Baybars united Syria and Egypt under his rule.  He was a patron of Islamic scholarship and arts, commissioning the construction of mosques, schools, and other public buildings throughout Egypt and Syria, many of which still stand today. His established a postal system, improvements in public safety, and the promoted trade.  In 1277 he died in Damascus drinking a cup of poison intended for someone else. 

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "https://archive.org/details/lionofegyptsulta0000thor/page/268/mode/2up?q=death"

Baybars was buried in Damascus under the dome of the Al-Ẓāhirīyah Library.

The mausoleum chamber of Baybars in Damascus, photo by Francesco Bandarin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons.

A pile-on post of the coins of Baybars I seems unlikely - post any coins you feel are relevant Louis IX of France? other participants in the seventh crusade? Islamic coins with images? anything else you find interesting or entertaining.

 

 

Edited February 10 by Sulla80

[Cordoba]

Great writeup! Only have a tangentially related coin, one of the Artuqids with a Seleukid inspired bust

Artuqids of Mardin. Husam al-Din Timurtash, AD 1122-1152. Dirham
(Bronze, 29 mm, 12.21 g, 7 h), Mardin

Obv: Large diademed male head to right.
Rev: Legend in Arabic in three lines, 'Malik al-umara / Abu al-Muzaffar /
Alpi bin; Legend around in Arabic, 'Il-Ghazi / Timurtash bin / bin Artuq'
(all in Kufic).
Reference: Spengler & Sayles 26; Album 1826.3; ICV 1198 (this coin).

[JeandAcre]

Terrific OP, @Sulla80. It's impossible not to like how Baybars, likely as not illiterate himself, continued the Islamic tradition of literary and broader cultural patronage, going from the Ayyubids back to the early Caliphates.  Evoking what Charlemagne had done in western Europe.  (For other precedent, AElfred the Great was literate himself, so he doesn't really count.)

...A couple of hours later, after looking everywhere else first, I found this pic of my example in the other forum.  Right, just go figure.

 

Mamluks: Baybars (658- 676 /1260-1277). Dirham, with heraldic lion on the obverse.
Album (2nd ed, 1998) 883.

Anither fun thing about Baybars, along with his having summarily ended Louis IX's first crusade, and decisively defeating the Mongol invasion of the Middle East --never mind his conquest of the Frankish principality of Antioch in 1268-- is his attempted assassination of the future Edward (summary edit:) I, when he showed up in (can I say this?) Palestine in 1271, just a little after Louis IX's second, only more resonantly disastrous crusade in Tunisia.

Here's my favorite denier of Edward, as Duke of Aquitaine, issued as the stated heir of Henry III, while he was variously engaged in tournaments in southern France, and what amounted to the last, predictably inconclusive 13th-century crusade.

  
 

Obv.  The Angevin lion, but passant guardant (facing, right paw raised), perhaps indicating Edward's cadency relative to the English throne.  (This is still well before systematized marks of cadency entered the heraldic canon.)  +EDVVARD FILI'

Rev.  [...] +h. REGIS ANGLIE:  (...'Edward, son of Henry, King of England.'  Note the substantive 'Anglie,' in contrast to the earlier, ubiquitous 'Anglorum,' denoting 'the English (people).'    Duplessy 1037.

(Very, Very unsolicited edit:) ...Additional interpretive remarks, for which someone will surely bust me, from whichever side of the spectrum:

The Crusades were what (big, fat, balloon-sized air quotes:) "Christian [as in, white] nationalism" looked like, as of 8 cenuries ago.  It's been tried, already.  My advice would be, Just, Give Up, Now.

Edited February 7 by JeandAcre

[Sulla80]

5 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

never mind his conquest of the Frankish principality of Antioch in 1268...

I enjoyed this ironic taunt from Baybars to count Bohemond:

- Peter Thorau, 1995, "The Lion of Egypt : Sultan Baybars I and the Near East in the thirteenth century"

[Ursus]

An attractive coin! I enjoyed reading your write-up on Baybars. He's a fascinating historical figure.

11 hours ago, Sulla80 said:

A pile-on post of the coins of Baybars I seems unlikel

 

I'll try to do that nonetheless, if you don't mind.  My first coin is a dirham, the second one a fractional dirham. The weight especially of the fractions varies greatly. I read somewhere that these apparently were valued by weight rather than per coin.

 

Mamluk Sultanate, under Baybars I, AR dirham,  1262–1278 AD (662–676 AH), al-Quahira (Cairo) mint. Obv: names and titles of Baybars: "al-salihi / al-sultan al-malik / al-zahir rukn al-dunya wa al-din / baybars qasim amir al-mu'minin;” below, lion l. Rev: central kalima: "la ilah illa allah / muhammad rasuluallah / arsalahu bi'l-huda;" marginal legend: “duriba al-quahira / sanat [date off-flan].” 20mm, 2.87g. Ref: Album 883.

 

Mamluk Sultanate, under Baybars I, AR fractional dirham (struck from dies for full dirham),  1262–1278 AD (662–676 AH), al-Quahira (Cairo) mint. Obv: partial names and titles of Baybars: "al-salihi / al-sultan al-malik / al-zahir rukn al-dunya wa al-din / baybars qasim amir al-mu'minin;” below, lion l. Rev: partial central kalima: "la ilah illa allah / muhammad rasuluallah / arsalahu bi'l-huda;" marginal legend: “duriba al-quahira / [date off-flan].” 14mm, 1.04g.  Ref: Album 884.

Edited February 7 by Ursus

[Parthicus]

"A pile-on post of the coins of Baybars I seems unlikely"

Challenge... accepted:

Baybars I, AE fals.  Feline in lozenge of dots, surrounded by inscription (mostly off flan)/inscription within six-pointed star.

Also, when I first posted this coin over in the "Other Forum", I titled my post "Hit Me Baybars (One More Time)".

...I make no apology for that pun.

 

[Hrefn]

Some of these are reposts, so feel free to skip over this post.

From the left, the first is a coin of  Louis  IX of France.

1).  Saint Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270 AD.)   Europe’s first gros tournois, a large coin of highly refined silver, struck circa 1266-1270 AD. Some luster remaining.  Ciani 181.  

Obv:  cross, légende intérieure : + LVDOVICVS. REX

légende extérieure : + BNDICTV: SIT: NOmE: DHI: nRI: DEI: IhV. XPI, (ponctuation par trois besants superposés).

Traduction: (Louis roi ; Que le nom de notre seigneur Jésus-Christ soit béni). 

Rev:  TURONIS CIVIS. 

Purchased from Alex Malloy 6/1989 

The second is a gros of Bohemond VI. 

2).  Bohemund VI of Tripoli   1251-75 AD.   He was knighted in Acre by St. Louis IX, married Sybilla of Armenia, daughter of King Hetoum bringing peace between Armenia and Tripoli, and assisted the Armenians and the Mongols in the capture of Aleppo and Damascus in 1260 AD.  Antioch was lost to Baybars during his reign, in 1268AD.  

Obv:  Cross.  BOEMVNDVS COMES.

Rev:  Star. CIVITAS TRIPOLI.    Purchased 3/1993 from Andy Singer

The third is of Bohemond VII

3).   Bohemund VII of Tripoli 1275-87 AD.   OBV:  Cross. SEPTIMVS BOEMVNDVS COMES. Rev:  CIVITAS TRIPOLIS SYRIE.  Bohemond VII spent much of his reign at war with the Templars and the Genoese.  He left no known legitimate children.  This gros was the same weight as the French gros tournois.  It was the last Crusader coin struck in the Holy Land.  Tripoli was lost to the Mamluks in 1289, two years after his death.     Purchased from Stephen Huston circa 1989

the fourth is of Charles of Anjou.   We are passing a bit beyond the time of Baybars, but I think the progression of design of the gros tournois is interesting.

4).  Robert d’Anjou, Kingdom of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem, although Jerusalem had been out of Western hands for about a century by this time.   This coin is also called a gigliato.  1309-1343 AD.   Obv: HONOR REGIS IUDICIUM DILIGIT    Rev: ROBERT DEI GRA IERL ET SICIL REX.  The honor of the king delights in justice.  Psalm 98:4 Vulgate.  Purchased from Stephen Huston 

the fifth is of Peter, King of Cyprus

Kingdom of Cyprus, Peter I. 1359-1369 AD.   His reign was the acme of military power of the Cypriot Kingdom.  His martial nature is well illustrated on this coin.  I believe he was the only Cypriot king to be depicted holding a sword on his coins.   He was successful in gaining a foothold on mainland Asia Minor by taking Antalya, he assisted the Armenians against the Turks, and briefly conquered Alexandria in Egypt, but was unable to persuade his army to continue on to Cairo.   Purchased from Andy Singer 8/1989

 

   

At the time of the battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the throne of Armenia was occupied by King Hetoum I and his wife Zabel.  King Hetoum had married his daughter to Bohemond VI.  

6).   Armenia, tram, Hetoum I and Zabel, Sis mint.  Ag                 

Obv, the two monarchs holding a long cross between them

Rev, an crowned lion rampant with a long cross.    Biga numismatics, auction 26 #644

As noted above, Armenia and Tripoli had allied with (or accepted the suzerainty of) the Mongols, and actively assisted them in their wars against the Mamelukes of Egypt.  The Mongol general who was operating in the area was Kitboga, who was himself a Nestorian Christian.  

Here is a coin of Kaykhasru II, the Seljuk sultan who unsuccessfully resisted the initial Mongol incursion into Asia Minor.  

 

7).  Seljuks of Rum, Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw II AR Dirham. Siwas mint, unclear date, AH 639(?) = AD

Lion advancing to right, crescent and three stars around; personification of sun above / Name and title in four lines; mint and date in outer margins. Album 1218; cf. Broome 272, type D(ii). 3.00g, 22mm, 5h.

Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 98, 16 June 2022, lot 1844.

Kay Khusraw II resisted the initial incursion of the Mongols under general Baiju.  He assembled a large army which included Christian allies from Georgia (one of his wives was a Georgian princess) and Frankish mercenaries.  Baiju also had a contingent of Georgian troops who had submitted to the Mongols.  

The battle of Köse Dag was fought in 1243.  Kaykhusraw divided his forces and sent 20,000 inexperienced troops toward the Mongols, perhaps in an attempt to soften them up before his main assault.  These troops fell for the classic Mongol deception, the feigned retreat.  They were drawn out, encircled, and annihilated.  At this, many of the Seljuk commanders including the Sultan fled the field, Kay Khusraw preserving his harem and his treasury, but leaving his leaderless army to sauve qui peut.

Many Seljuk possessions then fell to the Mongol army, including Sivas and Kayseri.  

(Sivas was the ancient city of Sebaste, a Byzantine city until peacefully ceded to the Armenians, who populated it, by Emperor Basil II who died in 1025.  In 1059 Sebaste became the first major city in Asia Minor to fall to the invading Turkish tribes who thoroughly burned the city, took many slaves, and massacred the inhabitants.  Ironic that its conquerors should endure the same fate less than two centuries later.  Sebaste was also the episcopal see of St. Blasius who was martyred in one of the last major Roman persecutions in 316.  Saint Blasius was mentioned on another thread.

Kayseri was the old city of Caesarea in Cappadocia.  The Seljuk forces of Alp Arslan took the city in 1067, destroying it and slaughtering the inhabitants, in the run-up to the great Turkish victory at Manzikert in 1071 over Romanus.)

Kay Khusraw II barely managed to keep his throne as a Mongol vassal.  Armenia and Tripoli allied themselves with the Mongols and participated in the conquest of Aleppo and Damascus.  The chronicler the Templar of Tyre recorded the entrance of the three Christian princes, the Mongol Kitboga, the King of Armenia, and Bohemund VI riding together into captured Damascus in 1260.    

The defeat of the Seljuks probably influenced the decision of the Armenians and the Franks in Tripoli to throw in their lot with the Mongols.  But even before the fall of Damascus the bulk of the Mongol forces had returned East due to internal conflicts in their empire.  Which set the stage for their defeat by Baybars at Ain Jalut later in 1260.

We still need a Mongol coin in here.

8).  A coin of Abaqa

 

Ilkhanid Persia dinar of the Tabriz mint, of Abaqa Khan 1265-1282 AD.  His mother was a Nestorian Christian, and his wife was the illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII.   Dated AH 677. Album 2126.  The Mongolian script says “Pure gold struck by the order of the Abaqa in the name of the Khagan,” according to the website Mongoliancoins.com   Purchased from William Warden 11/6/1999 

Eleven years after Ain Jalut, the English Prince Edward arrived in Acre (Akko) with the small Ninth Crusade.  He attempted to ally with the Mongols against Baybars, sending an embassy to Abaqa.  A relatively small  Mongol force of 10,000 cavalry was sent and achieved some success.  But the territorial gains were temporary and soon recovered by the Mamelukes.  

A note to @JeandAcre:  I think white nationalism is a faulty lens through which to view the history of the Crusading era, since nations as such did not exist, and people did not think in those terms.  Nor was there any concept of a white/nonwhite racial divide.  Baybars had blue eyes.  The elite of the time clearly married readily across cultural lines without hesitation so far as we can tell.  One’s religious beliefs were far more important than skin tone.  

One final note.  When Kitboga was brought before Baybars, Kitboga derided the Sultan, proudly saying he (Kitboga) had always been faithful to his masters, while Baybars had been treacherous to his.  Baybars then had him executed.  

 

[JeandAcre]

You're absolutely right, @Hrefn.  I heartily subscribe to the notion of racism in the form we know it being a modern invention.  ...In order to arrive at pseudo-science, to need scientific vocabulary to mess with in the first place.  The parallel with the Crusades isn't ust vague, but sloppy.

[ominus1]

...this coins a little later ..tribute denar paid by Levon IV, overstruck in Arabic by the Mamluks around 1332...Mohammed Al-Nasr i believe..

[panzerman]

Beautifull coins/ great historical write up.

Here are couple of mine...

Bahri Mamluks

AV Dinar ND

Alexandria Mint

Al Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars I 1260-77

Anatolian contempary imitation of Ilkhanate (Mongol) Dinar Abu Sa'id

Small hoard of 15-20 were found in Turkey/ only exs known to exist.

[Sulla80]

Clearly I underestimated the coin cabinets of the NF crowd - enjoyed all the relevant coins and additional information! and @Parthicus - I enjoyed the pun 😁

 

Here's one more for the "pile", an AE fals from Baybars:

Mamluks, al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars I AH 658-676, Æ Fals 2.41g 20mm, no date, no mint (Damascus?).

Edited February 8 by Sulla80

[DonnaML]

A quick question, @Sulla80, just to prove I was paying attention: you say at one point that Baybars had a "decisive victory at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260." But immediately thereafter, you have a block quotation referring to something that happened in 1250. Is one of those dates wrong?

[panzerman]

3 hours ago, DonnaML said:

A quick question, @Sulla80, just to prove I was paying attention: you say at one point that Baybars had a "decisive victory at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260." But immediately thereafter, you have a block quotation referring to something that happened in 1250. Is one of those dates wrong?

That battle was fought sept/ 1260.

[DonnaML]

1 minute ago, panzerman said:

That battle was fought sept/ 1260.

Thanks. Then maybe the quotation from the book about something that happened in 1250 was referring to a completely different event. Which raises the question, @Sulla80, of whether you meant that quotation to go somewhere else in your post?

[JeandAcre]

59 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

Thanks. Then maybe the quotation from the book about something that happened in 1250 was referring to a completely different event. Which raises the question, @Sulla80, of whether you meant that quotation to go somewhere else in your post?

@DonnaML, from here, that makes all the sense in the world, for no better reason than that I do that kind of thing all the time.  @Sulla80, given the indisputably sterling level of your post, more than one of us would appreciate your clarifying this, ideally by way of an edit, to keep it in or near the original context.

[Sulla80]

22 hours ago, DonnaML said:

A quick question, @Sulla80, just to prove I was paying attention: you say at one point that Baybars had a "decisive victory at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260." But immediately thereafter, you have a block quotation referring to something that happened in 1250. Is one of those dates wrong?

@DonnaML, Thank you for highlighting and I am glad to see that someone is reading what I posted.  As you correctly note: I placed a citation in the wrong place - the murder of Turanshah (1250) is described rather than that of Qutuz which came after the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.  I have corrected in the OP and added a couple of additional details.   Overall my abbreviated history and selected quotes from Peter Thorau's book only lightly touch on the dense events. 

Edited February 9 by Sulla80

[Sulla80]

On 2/8/2024 at 7:58 PM, Sulla80 said:

Overall my abbreviated history and selected quotes from Peter Thorau's book only lightly touch on the dense events. 

Shajara_al-Durr deserves her own post which I will certainly write up when I find acoin of hers   😃.  In the mean time here is a worldhistory.org writeup that could also be titled "from slave to sultan" : https://www.worldhistory.org/Shajara_al-Durr/)

Edited February 10 by Sulla80

[Alegandron]

All I got…

Egypt Mamluk Qalaun 1279-1290 CE AR Dirham Dianeshq