The Artuqid Rulers of Mardin, 502-812 H/1108-1409 AD
Legend & Design
Legend & Design
Obverse
Within beaded circle
two diademed heads facing, turned slightly to lower right, larger figure on left with dishevelled hair, smaller figure on right wearing close-fitting hat, both draped in Byzantine fashion with garment fastened with buckle at right shoulder
from 3:00 to 11:00 in simple Kufic script sab‘ sab‘in khamsmi’a
“seven and seventy and five hundred”
Reverse
Within beaded circle
in simple Kufic script al-nasir li’l-din / amir al-mu’minin / hadha’l-dirham / mal’un man / Artuqid tamgha (seal) /yu’ayyiruhu, above qutb al-din ibn downwards on left: najm al-din ibn, upwards on right: husam al-din
“al-Nasir li’l-Din, Commander of the Faithful, this dirham (tamgha) cursed be he who defaces (or changes) it, Qutb al-Din son of Najm al-Din, son of Husam al-Din”
Historical Note
Historical Note
Qutb al-Din Il-Ghazi II, the son of Najm al-Din Alpi, ruled the peaceful kingdom of Mardin for eight years.
On this coin he refers to himself and his forebears only by their laqabs, and does not trace them back beyond two generations, with his own name Qutb al-din, his father’s, Najm al-din (Alpi) and his grandfather’s, Husam al-din (Timurtash). It also names al-Nasir li-Din, the caliph who restored much of the lost power to the Abbasid caliphate during his long reign.
The most unusual feature of the reverse legend is the appearance of the “curse formula”, with the phrase mal‘un man yu’ayyiruhu, (“cursed be he who defaces it”) following hadha’l-dirham. This threat was repeated on the coinage of Il-Ghazi’s cousin, Nur al-Din Muhammad, in Hisn Kayfa the following year.
The design of this coin has a Byzantine prototype in the solidus of the Emperor Heraclius and his son Heraclius Constantine, but without the imperial crowns with crosses that are seen on that coin. Instead the larger figure has a dishevelled head of hair and oriental features, while the smaller one wears a round hat.
It is likely that the larger figure, representing the sun, and the smaller one representing Mercury, refer to the specific astrological event that occurred in Dhu’l-Hijja 576 H (April 1181 AD) when the planet Mercury transited the face of the sun.
