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A RARE CRUSADERS IMITATING DINAR OF FATIMID CALIPH AL AMIR

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
A RARE CRUSADERS IMITATING DINAR OF FATIMID CALIPH AL AMIR
A RARE & Historically important Crusaders Gold Coin Imitating a dinar of the Fatimid caliph al-Amir
Reign: ( 543 to 583 AH = 1148-1187 AD)
Mint place: Acre, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Dated: 543 Hijri (1148 AD) Fatimid Bulls-Eye Type style. When the Crusaders arrived in Palestine they came from countries where there was no tradition of gold coinage to an area where gold was the main medium of exchange. They therefore adopted the simplest expedient of striking coins that would be familiar to and accepted by the local population. These were copies of the Fatimid dinars that had been struck by al-Amir, who ruled between 495 and 524 H (1101-1130 AD). The Muslim originals were invariably inscribed with highly regular Kufic script, but the copies, while legible, were slightly erratic in the execution of their legends. Surprisingly, they bore no Christian symbolism or words whatsoever but carried all the usual inscriptions that had been placed on al-Amir’s coins. This even included Sura 9, verse 33, “Muhammad is the messenger of God who sent him with guidance and the religion of truth that he might make it supreme over all other religions, even though the polytheists detest it”. The polytheists, of course, refer to the Christians who believed in the Holy Trinity. The mint name is always Misr (Egypt), although the coins were struck at Acre or Jerusalem, and they bore various dates between 506 and 516 H. This coin, which was probably struck during the reigns of Baldwin III or Guy de Lusignan, is dated 514 (1120), although the two of them ruled between 543 and 583 (1149 to 1187), a period that covered the reigns of the Fatimid caliphs al-Zafir, al-Fa‘iz and the last one, al-‘Adid, as well as that of the first Ayyubid ruler in Egypt, al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known in the west as Saladin.