Reading Islamic Coins - ID Solved

[Sulla80]

If I make a small attempt each day, eventually my expectation is that I should start to be able to read the inscriptions on Islamic coins more easily.  I have to admit that it still feels more like identifying shapes that reading...some words and names are starting to be easy to see.

Here's my coin of interest today....

Looking at this coin the first thing I see  is :

"There is no God but God"

although I am not sure I am reading this right as there are some stray lines in red that I can't explain other than an engraver who wasn't very good or some flourishes.  Here's a cleaner version from another coin:

The next element that stands out for me:

"Muhammad"

I enjoy this style of script with its elongated letters and flourishes, although I have to admit that I have difficulty seeing the mapping to محمد

and the next (at this point expected line of the Kalima) which seems fairly easy to see even with the sloppy calligraphy of this coin:

rasūl Allah (is the Messenger of God)

and the last elements are the names in the four lobes of the quatrefoil which I am expecting as the names of the first four caliphs, i.e. the "rightly guided" caliphs because they learned directly from Muhammad.  Abū Bakr/'Umar/'Uthman/'Ali

only two are visible which I see as:

(bottom lobe)

 (left Lobe)

here again - I am seeing with more expectation than ability to read letters and asking questions like:

- are the four caliphs always ordered on coins in chronological order?

- does this engraver just have really bad handwriting?

 

Here is an example with much neater calligraphy from a coin of Abu Sa'id.

 

SOLVED with many thanks to @John Conduitt. 

Jalayrids: Sultan Husayn I, 1374-1382, AR dinar (2.78g), AH 780-783, AR 2 dinars (variant of A-2308.3 and Zeno 53369)...and thanks to @DLTcoins the mint is Hamadan, rather coarsely engraved, undated, Zeno #83055 (this coin).

type TC : five-vaned pattern / quatrefoil, kalima within

Album notes: "The date is engraved in minuscule words between the five vanes, often so wretchedly as to be utterly illegible"

 

This coin weighs 2.78g and could be a 2 dinar based on the 1 dinar coins that I have seen in the 1.4-1.5 range.  It is an ellipse with a diameter that ranges 17-21mm.

What was the region that the Jalayrids ruled?

The Jalayrids were a Mongol tribe that  spread over Central Asia after the Mongol conquest in the 13th century, those that migrated to Iran and Iraq founded the Jalayrid Sultanate in 1330 the the breakup of the region ruled by the Ilkhanids (the core territories of which are today parts of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey).

Public Domain map via Wikimedia Commons.

Share your experience reading medieval Islamic coins, post coins with interesting calligraphy from this period, or anything else you find interesting or entertaining.

 

 

Edited March 10 by Sulla80

[John Conduitt]

The lettering is often different to what you'd expect. They take a lot more liberties than we do. Sometimes it runs in different directions, or into other words, or around them, or scattered around the coin. Kufic can look like they just replaced letters with a line, like some people's signatures.

As soon as you see those loops either side of the first line (There is no God...) you can usually ignore the rest as it is the Kalima and will tell you nothing about the coin.

If that is the date it isn't 719, it would be 219, or 834, but I don't think it is.

It looks like these.

Edited March 9 by John Conduitt

[Sulla80]

50 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

The lettering is often different to what you'd expect. They take a lot more liberties than we do. Sometimes it runs in different directions, or into other words, or around them, or scattered around the coin. Kufic can look like they just replaced letters with a line, like some people's signatures.

As soon as you see those loops either side of the first line (There is no God...) you can usually ignore the rest as it is the Kalima and will tell you nothing about the coin.

If that is the date, it isn't 719. It would be 219, or 834. Like these.

Thanks @John Conduitt, that is a good visual match & a useful avenue to chase....  what I am seeing is that there are no coins on zeno from Shirvanshahs in a weight range of 2.2-3.5g (compared to my coin of 2.78g)  and the writing on the reverse much different and these 4-5 gram tankas  seemingly always on a flan too small for the die....and hard to see a quatrefoil surrounding the Kalima..

http://search.zeno.ru/index.php?v=0&ar=on&th=on&c=&t=Shirvanshahs&k=&d=&wmin=2.2&wmax=3.5&smin=&smax=&m=&ymin=&ymax=&y=&u=&n=&a=&e=&f=0&s=0&p=2

Edited March 9 by Sulla80

[John Conduitt]

37 minutes ago, Sulla80 said:

Thanks @John Conduitt, that is a good visual match & a useful avenue to chase....  what I am seeing is that there are no coins on zeno from Shirvanshahs in a weight range of 2.2-3.5g (compared to my coin of 2.78g)  and the writing on the reverse much different and these 4-5 gram tankas  seemingly always on a flan too small for the die....

http://search.zeno.ru/index.php?v=0&ar=on&th=on&c=&t=Shirvanshahs&k=&d=&wmin=2.2&wmax=3.5&smin=&smax=&m=&ymin=&ymax=&y=&u=&n=&a=&e=&f=0&s=0&p=2

The weight would be very low, but Album suggests there wasn't a standard:

"temp. Khalil Allah I, 821-869 / 1418-1466
2470 AR tanka (5-vaned design with mint name in center / various reverse arrangements). The 5-vane type, dated 823-853 (sometimes undated), follows a
weight of about 4.0-4.1g, but occasional specimens weigh up to 4.5g or as low as 3.0g. Probably coinage to be weighed rather than counted."

He then says:
"Reverse has the date, usually in words but occasionally in numbers. There are two principal types, one with the date between the lines of kalima, the other with the date in the center of kalima. Known dated as late as 853, possibly 856."

Dates in words are not easy to find, because they are written in the form 'in the year seventy three (and) eight' for 873, but if it is mixed up with the kalima... This is one with the date in the middle. The 5 petals contain the "ruler’s titulature beginning with ‘al-Sulṭān / al-Aʿẓam / …’ (‘The supreme Sultan)".

Edited March 9 by John Conduitt

[Sulla80]

10 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

The weight would be very low, but Album suggests there wasn't a standard:

"temp. Khalil Allah I, 821-869 / 1418-1466
2470 AR tanka (5-vaned design with mint name in center / various reverse arrangements). The 5-vane type, dated 823-853 (sometimes undated), follows a
weight of about 4.0-4.1g, but occasional specimens weigh up to 4.5g or as low as 3.0g. Probably coinage to be weighed rather than counted."

He then says:
"Reverse has the date, usually in words but occasionally in numbers. There are two principal types, one with the date between the lines of kalima, the other with the date in the center of kalima. Known dated as late as 853, possibly 856."

Dates in words are not easy to find, because they are written in the form 'in the year seventy three (and) eight' for 873, but if it is mixed up with the kalima...

Thank you for the research - and a good point about the dates being written out.   My coin definitely doesn't have a date mixed in with the Kalima.

Edited March 9 by Sulla80

[John Conduitt]

Some of these are really light... I think this is the right area, just need to find the mint and date.

This in Album is very close but too light now...

Sultan Husayn I (Jalal al-Din), 776-784 / 1374-1382
2308.3 AR dinar (1.44g), type TC (five-vaned pattern / quatrefoil), 779-783
The date is engraved in minuscule words between the five vanes, often so wretchedly as to be utterly illegible.
The mint is normally inscribed interlinearly on the reverse, with khulida mulkuhu in the obverse center, but this phrase is sometimes replaced by the mint name.

Edited March 9 by John Conduitt

[Sulla80]

4 hours ago, John Conduitt said:

Some of these are really light... I think this is the right area, just need to find the mint and date.

This in Album is very close but too light now...

Sultan Husayn I (Jalal al-Din), 776-784 / 1374-1382
2308.3 AR dinar (1.44g), type TC (five-vaned pattern / quatrefoil), 779-783
The date is engraved in minuscule words between the five vanes, often so wretchedly as to be utterly illegible.
The mint is normally inscribed interlinearly on the reverse, with khulida mulkuhu in the obverse center, but this phrase is sometimes replaced by the mint name.

Thank you! that looks like the right answer!  I found one from Steven Album in ACSearch:

Islamic - Post-Mongol Iran & Timurid https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6687878
JALAYRIDS: Sultan Husayn I, 1374-1382, AR dinar (1.46g), Ani (in Armenia), AH780, A-2308.3, very rare mint in Armenia, well known for the later Ilkhan rulers, but virtually unknown for the Jalayrids, and abandoned shortly thereafter, wonderful strike, with bold date on the obverse (in words) and the mint interlinearly within the reverse, EF, RRR.

Edited March 9 by Sulla80

[DLTcoins]

Here is your coin. Not only the same type and mint but apparently the same die pair! Credit to @John Conduitt for suggesting Jalayrids.

https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=83055

Edited March 10 by DLTcoins

[Sulla80]

8 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

Here is your coin. Not only the same type and mint but apparently the same die pair! Credit to @John Conduitt for suggesting Jalayrids.

https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=83055

Thanks, @DLTcoins - That is more than the same die pair - that is my coin!  Zeno 83055, with photos that are differing a little in perspective and lighting.

Edited March 10 by Sulla80

[Sulla80]

several general questions about this coin and Islamic coins more generally:

- are the four caliphs always ordered on coins in chronological order?

- does the engraver of my Jalayrid coin have really bad handwriting?

- can anyone make sense of the lettering in the "vanes" on the 5-vaned obverse? e.g. I am trying to make out "Hamadan" the mint anywhere on the reverse or obverse.

حمدان    (maybe in the center of the 5 vanes in a tortured two lines?)

Edited March 11 by Sulla80

[DLTcoins]

Based on Rabino ('Coins of the Jala'ir...', Num Chron 1950), BMC Oriental VI 'Mongols', and Zeno, the inscription in the 5 vanes should be (from top, the missing vane in parenthesis):

في دولة

(السلطان)

الاعظم

جلال الدين

حسين خان

and at center:

خلد ملكه

(fi dawla / al-sultan / al-a'zam / Jalal al-Din / Husayn khan // khallad mulkahu)

With some imagination I can convince myself that it fits but it's screwy (technical term of art 🙂). An imitation? I don't see a mint name or a date anywhere. There is no way, I suppose, to know the Zeno poster's level of expertise. We can only take it at face value. There is an example of the smaller single dinar at Zeno with clear inscriptions, including the mint name Hamadan written between lines of the Kalima. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=78353

 

 

Edited March 11 by DLTcoins

[Sulla80]

5 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

Based on Rabino ('Coins of the Jala'ir...', Num Chron 1950), BMC Oriental VI 'Mongols', and Zeno, the inscription in the 5 vanes should be (from top, the missing vane in parenthesis):

في دولة

(السلطان)

الاعظم

جلال الدين

حسين خان

and at center:

خلد ملكه

(fi dawla / al-sultan / al-a'zam / Jalal al-Din / Husayn khan // khallad mulkahu)

With some imagination I can convince myself that it fits but it's screwy (technical term of art 🙂). An imitation? I don't see a mint name or a date anywhere. There is no way, I suppose, to know the Zeno poster's level of expertise. We can only take it at face value. There is an example of the smaller single dinar at Zeno with clear inscriptions, including the mint name Hamadan written between lines of the Kalima. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=78353

Thank you for the references and research, @DLTcoins, very much appreciated!  I like your "shrug": ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 🙂

Rabino, “COINS OF THE JALĀ’IR, ḲARA ḲOYŪNLŪ, MUSH͟A’SH͟A’, AND ĀḲ ḲOYŪNLŪ DYNASTIES.” The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, vol. 10, no. 37/38, 1950, pp. 94–139.

Catalogue of Oriental coins in the British Museum Vol. VI; The Coins of the Mongols in the British Museum, classes XVIII-XXII, Stanley Lane & Stuart Poole, BMC, London, 1881

(Plate IX coin 615 )

https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.67049/page/n295/mode/2up

 

 

Edited March 12 by Sulla80