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User:Cplakidas/sandbox/Fatimid coinage

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Fatimid coinage refers to the coins minted under the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), an Isma'ili Shi'a empire that ruled large parts of North Africa and the Levant, first from Tunisia and then from Egypt. The Fatimids were particularly known for the high quality of their gold dinars, which were widely imitated by the Crusader states in the 12th century. Fatimid silver coinage on the other hand is mostly ignored, and they did not mint any copper coinage.

Background

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The Fatimid dynasty claimed descent from Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad and wife of Ali, through Isma'il, the son of the last commonly accepted Shi'a Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq.[1] This claim was often disputed even by their contemporaries, especially the Sunnis. The secretiveness of the family before c. 890 and the differing genealogies subsequently published by the dynasty itself further make it difficult for modern scholars to assess the exact origin of the dynasty.[2] Whatever their true origin, the Fatimids were the leaders of the Isma'ili sect of Shi'ism, and they headed a movement which, in the words of the historian Marius Canard, "was at the same time political and religious, philosophical and social, and whose adherents expected the appearance of a Mahdi descended from the Prophet through Ali and Fatima".[1] Therefore, unlike their contemporary rivals, the Abbasid and Umayyad caliphs, the Fatimid caliphs were not just secular rulers ruling over a diverse population of Muslim, Christian, or Jewish subjects, but above all Isma'ili imams: for the Isma'ili faithful, they were the ultimate, infallible and divinely guided authorities on matters of faith.[3]

The right to be mentioned on coinage and in the sermon of the Friday prayer were the two most common attributes and prerogatives of sovereignty in the medieval Islamic world,[4] with the removal of rulers' names or the addition of new ones being the chief symbolic signifier of changes in political or religious adherence of a province or local potentate.[5] Consequently, already during the abortive pro-Fatimid revolt led by al-Husayn ibn Zakarawayh in Syria in 903, coins were issued at the mint of Homs on behalf of the—yet unnamed—Mahdi, and in the Friday sermon the name of the Abbasid caliph al-Muktafi was dropped in favour of the "Successor, the rightly-guided Heir, the Lord of the Age, the Commander of the Faithful, the Mahdi".[6][7]

History of Fatimid coinage

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The history of Fatimid coinage is essentially the history of the Fatimid gold dinars, as the Fatimids did not issue copper coinage, and their silver coins has been almost entirely neglected by modern collectors.[8]

Early Fatimid coins

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Early Fatimid gold dinar of al-Mahdi, struck at Kairouan in 910/1

The first Fatimid coins were minted soon after the conquest of the Aghlabid emirate in Ifriqiya by the army of the Isma'ili missionary Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i, who became regent on behalf of the absent Fatimid imam.[9][10] That imam, Abdallah al-Mahdi, was still in hiding at Sijilmasa,[11] and his name unknown even to Abu Abdallah, who had never seen him.[12] As a result, the new coins bore generic phrases heralding a new age, without naming a ruler: "The Proof of God [i.e. the Mahdi] has arrived" on the one side and "The enemies of God are scattered" on the other.[13][14] The Ifriqiyans called these nameless coins as Sayyidiyya,[13] from the honorific appellation sayyid, 'lord', applied to Abu Abdallah.[15] Another slogan that appeared then on the coinage, "Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe", became "the motto and signature for all of the Fatimid caliphs".[14]

Gold dinar of al-Mansur, struck at Mansuriya in 949/50

When Abdallah al-Mahdi assumed the throne in 910, he put his name and claimed titles on the coins: al-Imam al-Mahdi bi'llah Abdallah Amir al-Mu'minin, "The Imam rightly guided by God Abdallah, Commander of the Faithful".[16] Otherwise his coins were identical to the contemporary Abbasid ones;[17] unsurprisingly, since the mint had been inherited from the Aghlabids and remained under a veteran Ifriqiyan mintmaster.[18] The Fatimids profited from the role of Ifriqiya as the outlet of trans-Saharan trade networks, not only in terms of tax revenue, but particularly as a terminus for the gold trade, which supplied the Fatimid mint with large amounts of high-quality metal.[19] According to one estimate, about two tons of gold were imported from south of the Sahara into the Maghreb every year, half of which went to the Fatimid mints.[20]

The coins of the second caliph, al-Qa'im, followed the same style.[citation needed] The coins of his son, al-Mansur, for the first two years of his reign (AH 334 and 335, corresponding to 946/7 and 947/8 CE) still bore the name of al-Qa'im,[21] who had died on 17 May 946, as al-Mansur was engaged in the suppression of the revolt of Abu Yazid and kept his father's death secret.[22] The rebels also minted gold dinars of their own at Kairouan, including Sunni and Kharijite formulas in direct challenge to Fatimid claims.[23] Only after the defeat and death of the rebel leader in August 947 did al-Mansur not publicly proclaim himself as caliph,[24] and the first issue with his name dates to May/June 948.[21] Al-Mansur also introduced the first changes in design of the coins, by introducing a concentric outer inscription around a central, horizontally inscribed field.[25]

Changes under al-Mu'izz

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Gold dinar of al-Mu'izz, minted at Cairo in 973/4

Al-Mansur's son, al-Mu'izz (r. 953–975), further changed the design of the coins and established the typical Fatimid style of currency: the horizontal field was removed altogether, and the coins featured thee concentric circles around a central point.[25] Unlike his predecessors,[21] al-Mu'izz introduced explicitly Shi'a formulas proclaiming Isma'ili doctrine: the obverse side included a praise to Ali as "heir (wasi) of the Prophet and the most excellent deputy and husband of the Radiant Pure One (i.e. Fatima)", while the reverse declared al-Mu'izz's and his ancestors' claims to the imamate as the "Revifier of the Sunna of Muhammad, the lord of those sent [by God], and the inheritor of the glory of the Rightly Guiding Imams".[17][25] The deliberately polemic formula about Ali was dropped in AH 343 (954/5 CE), for reasons that are as unclear as to why it was introduced in the first place—possibly the highly inflammatory formula caused problems with the Sunni majority of the Fatimid subjects[17]—and replaced with the more moderate "Ali is the most excellent of the heirs and is the deputy (wazir) of the best of those sent [by God]".[25] The three concentric circles on obverse and reverse remained as the standard pattern for subsequent Fatimid dinars.[26]

During the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969, one of the core promises of the Fatimid general Jawhar to the inhabitants of Fustat was the restoration of the coinage to the high-quality standard set by al-Mansur.[27] For this purpose, equipment for a new mint had been brought along with the Fatimid army, and minted extremely high-quality coins,[26] so much so, that the Egyptians hoarded these coins and continued to use the debased Abbasid currency instead.[28] Jawhar's attempts to regulate the conversion rate between the new Fatimid dinars and the old, debased, Abbasid coinage caused widespread resentment when he set the Abbasid dinar at an artificially low conversion rate to drive it out of circulation. The issue remained unresolved until al-Mu'izz arrived in Egypt in 972 with large quantities of gold bullion; only then did the Fatimid dinars prevail in the Egyptian market.[29] The Mu'izzi dinars enjoyed such a good reputation that under al-Mustansir (r. 1036–1094), who had the same name as al-Mu'izz, virtually identical coins were minted between 1048/9 and 1080/1, most likely in order to borrow the earlier coins' prestige.[30]

Later developments

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Gold dinar struck in 1021, with the names of Caliph al-Hakim and the designated heir Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas

Under al-Aziz (r. 975–996), the formula "The Servant of God and His Companion [i.e., Ali]" was added before the name of the reigning caliph.[17] Unlike Abbasid practice, where coins often included the names of designated heirs or viziers, or other potentates,[31] the Fatimid coins never did so, with the exception of al-Hakim (r. 996–1021) who added the name of his designated successor (wali ahd al-muslimin) as caliph, Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas, to the coins.[17] In 1130, the same title was put on the coins by Abd al-Majid during his regency after the murder of his cousin, al-Amir (r. 1101–1130), before he assumed the caliphate himself as al-Hafiz in 1132.[17][32] Before that, however, his regency was interrupted by the brief regime of Kutayfat, who abolished the Fatimid dynasty altogether and instead put on his coins a mysterious "Abu'l-Qasim, the Expected One on God's command (al-Muntazar li-Amr Allah), Commander of the Faithful" or "the Rightly-Guided Imam, who executes God's will, Proof of God". This "Expected Imam" remained unnamed, and is commonly held to have been the Twelver Muhammad al-Mahdi. This is far from certain, as the ambiguity suited Kutayfat's purposes: in the absence of the nebulous Imam, he was free to rule as a divinely authorized vice-gerent.[17][33]

Mints and their administration

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Fatimid coins were issued in the Fatimid capitals—Kairouan, Mahdiya and its suburb Zawila, Mansuriya, and Cairo–Fustat—but also several provincial or vassal state mints: Fez, Muhammadiya, Tripoli in Libya and Barqa in the Maghreb; Palermo (provincial mint for Sicily); Alexandria and Qus in Egypt; Ayla, Aleppo, Damascus, Tyre, Tiberias, Tripoli in Lebanon, Ramla (provincial mint of Palestine), Acre, and Ascalon in the Levant; Mecca and Medina in the Hejaz, and Sanaa and Zabid in Yemen; and even, briefly, in Baghdad.[34][35]

In 1122, the vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi built a new mint (dar al-darb) in Cairo.[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b Canard 1965, p. 850.
  2. ^ Canard 1965, pp. 850–852.
  3. ^ Bierman 1998, p. 60.
  4. ^ Lewis 2004, pp. 82–83, 85.
  5. ^ Darley-Doran 1997, pp. 594–595.
  6. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 78–82.
  7. ^ Daftary 2007, p. 123.
  8. ^ Walker 2002, p. 95.
  9. ^ Brett 2017, pp. 33–34.
  10. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 115–117.
  11. ^ Halm 1991, p. 121.
  12. ^ Halm 1991, p. 125.
  13. ^ a b Halm 1991, p. 117.
  14. ^ a b Walker 2002, pp. 95–96.
  15. ^ Halm 1991, p. 116.
  16. ^ Darley-Doran 1997, p. 595.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Darley-Doran 1997, p. 596.
  18. ^ Halm 1991, p. 141.
  19. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 247–255.
  20. ^ Brett 2001, p. 256.
  21. ^ a b c Walker 2002, p. 96.
  22. ^ Halm 1991, pp. 277–278.
  23. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 168, 171.
  24. ^ Halm 1991, p. 287.
  25. ^ a b c d Walker 2002, p. 97.
  26. ^ a b Brett 2001, p. 304.
  27. ^ Halm 1991, p. 365.
  28. ^ Brett 2001, pp. 306–307.
  29. ^ Halm 2003, pp. 90–91.
  30. ^ Walker 2002, pp. 97–98.
  31. ^ Darley-Doran 1997, pp. 593–594.
  32. ^ Halm 2014, pp. 179, 182–183.
  33. ^ Halm 2014, pp. 180–181.
  34. ^ Miles 1951, pp. 50–51.
  35. ^ Walker 2002, p. 98.
  36. ^ Halm 2014, pp. 173–174.

Sources

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