arabic coins and how to read them
TRANSCRIPT
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ARABIC COINS
and how to read them
y
Richard J Plant
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© Richard
J.
Plant 1973, 1980
First Edition 1973
Second Edition revised) 198
ISBN O
900652 52
7
DEDICATION
to
my
wife Anne and sons Peter and Stephen
Published by
Seaby Publications
Ltd
Audley House, 11 Margaret Street,
London
WlN 8AT
Printed in
Great
Britain
by Robert
Stockwell Ltd., London, SE1
CONTENTS
P• o
5
Ctue»t.r
1 The
numerals
. Arllbic dating 7
Ch• t . r
The Alphabet 10
ctupt91111 Mint and date
on Ottoman
coins. List
of
recent sultans
14
Ch8pl9r
IV
Coin
denominat
iom . The plural 18
Chmptmr V Four coins with
Ottomen
connectlons. Nemes 22
C 1• • r VI Modem royal coins
.
The short vOYWll sign
26
Ch1Pt•r VII Morocco.
Non-royal colns
29
Chlflt9r VIII The
Kufic script
32
Ch1111l9r IX Kufic
dating
34
Ctupt.r X Mohammed
and
the early Caliphate. Umaiyid Caliphs. Early
~
Ch9'1taf' XI An Umaiyid coin examined. The velb 40
Chapi.r XII
The
Abbasld
coin. Abbasid
Caliphs
44
ChaptM 1 111
The developing
Kufi type. Secular
ru
lers
48
C h • t . ,
XIV
Tt'le Um a
iyi
ds of Sp al
n.
Sh i ítes. Th e' Fatim ids 53
Ch111111r 1'.V
Sultans of
Delhi. The
ir
earlier coins 58
Ch1P19 ' XVI Later Deth i coins.
The
Mohammedan kingdoms
of
India 65
Chaptlf XVII The Almohades. The Ayyubids
and the
Memluks 72
Ch1111tmr XVIII
The
Seljuk advance. The Seljuks of Ru m .
The
Urtuqids and
Zengids
78
Ch111tmr
XIX The history and
coinage
of
ttle Mongols.
The
llkhans
86
Ct111pt11r
XX Post-llkhanid
Persia. The
Persian
couplet 94
ChlP *
XXI
The
Safev
id Shahs.
Nad
ir s chronogram . Honorific epithets 1
Chlfl1111 )(XII Qajar
Shahs. Persian numbers. Afgtlan ruters 106
Ch1Pt•r XXIII
The
Moghuls, and their
ea r
tier coins. Persian solar
months
114
Chlpt1r XXIV Later Moghul coins
119
Chmpi.r XXV Moghul reverses. Company coins, and coins
of
Na tive
States
24
Ch11Ptltr
XXVI Malaya
and
lndonesiP
129
Answars
to the
E1tllt cl-
132
Voc:lbulery 138
Append ices: Numismatically
important
Ayyublds
149
Errat•
lndex
The
Ghaznavids 150
Tha Samenids
Chronological
Lists
of
Ruters
Li
sts of
Mints
150
151
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FOREllVORD
Reading Arabic is fu n .
Pe
rse
vere
long enough at least
to
get throug h the " alphabe1
barTier
",
an
d a
whole ne w
world
will
open
up to the collector th ri:.ugh h
is
own coi ns.
''T:rwih
Youueff
1Amb1c" tmd o t htr .9J'UmmM
bOOIG
Jllll
in
o
~ p l i : r . : a t l l d
Iln.clensi:oiu
nnd coniu¡¡aüon'$
f t t
.ll verv
earl
y cllllga;·an d ' in ·an.v ca a·th vucabulDT.V".tllll{jht i
i$ m>l
>f tha t yµi i
nerr&ld by me rumiismafl:u. Of whn. u$1l to liim·-ore .l>hnnes llke ''.tite tome iirt'bs'in thl yellow
.room" ·
or ·r jjirl,
1
1Pfllll< th e '.
lTUt h an d
'
fü¡ no t '
'.?
1 am
not
mn:tií1¡g
the
t 1 1 b i c Aftllr mntt111'ing 1tiis book he wi ll.not be .ablll : O.,
Qll
•Out "
ond hold 11 converatéon
.with 11n.
Amb;
btit he
.will hlM .llOt the
"'$tart" he
nee.dJ towants'lln
11n00rstt1ndh19J:1
f cólru
'ilW;libOO in Arabic..
T:he
.Aratiic ·Blphllbe.t1n
tact
covcR.a n u n ró f
llln..11uages - .A
rn
tiic'1s
Stlmi
r
i.c:
P8Y.
1ian
i$
n d 0 - E u r o ~ 1 1 ;
:and Matav.en b :10
the
lll'iOley.o-flolvneiían
JlrOup.
Ol'ífllnlnte.s ar.e no t j Jl't of
"dlafo.ct. t
hey
:m:e
.o1
b n S f c ~ T U i : t u r e . 1 1 o ~ . Anil:Hc 'in11ff ·¡¡ tt111<1·n11v inip0rtt 1nt olll ,J.l&at.ing·a
Tl lefüi
rulljp
to otoor
Orianu1 lanJ1wtJlll:$
Oól .unfike ·
01-
111 of
Latín to
1he larigul Jes o'1 Europe.
Jllst
11.$
1media6va1
EUl'QPQ1ln coim
an1 ' inscribOd ' in l;Jitl l,
so 31m 1hll
11llijoi'ity
..ni
lile
c;s:iina
ol
Norih .AWan, "Tu r.lé.isli, Peniian, and .lnd ron ofiúin ' inaciilJlld until verv t e ~ e n t times in .Al'ib i:c.
A 1imlt4d k n o ~ o l l ' ~ i a n will
.atso be
1MCl ffllr:y .for
unrave
U
og
ihe f > ~ i a n po eilc
c o u p ~ t s ' fou ad
on
lndiiln
anti
Parsian C l i n ~
parfü:utarly
lul'ing Jhe se ven.taenth .ond.l i.gntl emh
<Wntur'ies A.O .
1 innmd
to
Sírqplíf.Y
1h¡rigs
1Q muahau )0$il ble .
P r . o r w n ~ . ¡ j f i o l \ for in
1.1Bna, ia
no
t of
pr'ime 'innionance to tilo 1 1 1 1 a f ü ~ $ > only -a
rou¡jh
«qti ivulent ' is ,.given - a numbllr of
,An b
lc
let:.tera·are ttan.
sa'lbechls
"Z''.. "Z " is n&aT•eTioughl
Again, \nt
en
d·to: le.ave
ou
t 1he ~ h o r r v o w e l s v m h o 1 1 e x m i p ~ just
to
.exp lain v.d:la•
the5a
11re. r lntend
.to :.
uvtt
out .casa er'ldings
whue
the:slt l i te
Wl'ft
teri in the Al'Jlblc¡ ,ai .the
njajo
r
i ty
lm ,
>Y
shon
·
vo
wel&
an d
· "nl41\ittion"
sym
bo
Jr,
Wl'llch
are.not u.swlly.
hown on
:
the
: <ioins .
For
simplicitv's--
salte.;
thase llrtt
,also.<
fttft out of :
the
: trama«optioll-
t h e .
Afabié in
E w : o p n n 1 i t t u m ·lri;óther w
nr
m the Am b
io.o
f tbls.book:is·no f ü s t y 9 1 1 1 m m : D 1 i c a l t t u i ~ i 1 t n i s
béeo'sJmPlifledV.,he<aver- pcri1ible .
With ngard
to the
illustnitions,
:rltt.
ir
.not rehnl d t a
the-actual
' si71t
ot "
út4f. coJ1í,
but
·"OJthei 10 ths-l l t tdot being eble .io m lcll 00 1 a.he
writing
oó it . A coin with a ·more•complléeted
i ilúi:tl
pll'on
il jill ' tend blo1111n up 'I ll\Gfll than a c:iDln
with
' i ting t i a t b ~ s i l y l l i J l b l e . In
man
CIUI $ 1o
e11.w o u t
&he ·
ma11v 'do
ts
110d ma r.ks'Whiclt
one tí nds
on 1flfle.ti:>Jní. bUl Wltlcb 11re
, not'J)ilrt ·of
1hé
in:rqoiption - marks Which-c.o< b1vvt fy, conl·úsl 'IQ.
1 "w i
th
'· thé. Oiunnan_ Eippi,re¡ - trol)ing that - the .tHríU·:of. ' dlscov8t:l"9
11'1et
1tiese
. com rnoa,,coíns ca n, t:Je lnt erpreted
.
wry 11.&sHy.'will inducé· ~ 1 e a d e r w f-ollollj :tbrougb to the
•. m o r ~ madern-,Arilb l<:- CDins, .and . tlJen, by l l r s b e i n g famíl iar 'with 1he Atab ic:alapha
be t
, to
e•
ta<:k le
.
he ear
y i:uin.s rtl'lli
gh
t 1roni 1tw Wor
ld
,of the'
,
'Ar@i
on
1
NigJits" from. lh e: <11ltt.tred
; é vj timion 1hat geve µs
,.
amon Jft o t hcr lhiogs¡ Af911bral
From here we-
·movl :
~
a j p l end
nt
1hl
realm of
:.Pérslan
11nd
lni:lian.i:oins.
0111.,
•r miatt;snleeti.oo
qf-
posslbli;
legendf
cn lt' bíc' lonkcnh1. In '11
sn'H1ll
¡
book
Jlk8' ltiill;;
but
bie11I l •:Will t i a w •
succeedl d
. t h a r i e & : f • l . l " i J a i n s an in l lTl U,111 hil Arable i:Dint; if · pertiapt it
' maklís' h1fT4lO
ounind bu y
. morV bot:ila"Ott-the.
sybjec
t .
CHAPTER 1
The numerals. Arabíc dating
Our eas iest topic will be the
nume
ral ciphers, so here
we
begin .
European
Arabic
2
"
4
E: or
5
o
6
1
7
V
8
"
9 o
Figures
do
vary
considerably in shape.
5, fo
r example,
may
be O or C.
Occasionally
they tip to the ri
ght, for 6,
<.
for
7.
All Arabic is written
from
right
to
left, but in the case of
numbers
this is cancelled out
by the
fect
thet Arabs
speak
of
them
the opposite way
round from the
way
we
do . 754 is
to
them
"Four and fifty and seven hundred", t and • and
V•• ,
\Nhich is
put
together and
written
in th eir
usual
way from right
to
1eft as V O t .This means that for practical purposes
Arabic
numera
ls
are
"
the
right way
round"
as
far
as
we
are
concerned
.
Note that in Morocco they have used European numerals
for
the past two
hundred
years
,
andan Arabic
coin w it h European
numerals
on it
probably comes from Morocco
or. just
possibly, Tu nis .
We need a
knowledge
of numerals to
work
out the
den-0mination
of a coin .
For
example, a 1
arge Turkish copper
coin with t • in the centre is a
40 para
coin. But our main
concern with Arabic numerals is for working
out
dates .
Dates
a
re nearly
a lw
ays "Anno Hegirae" rather than
"Anno Domini" -
A.H.
rather
than A .O. The Hegira was the "F light", Mohammed's fl ight from
Mec
ca on 16th
July 622AD
.
But to change an
A.H
.
date
into an A.O. ene we have
to
do more
than
jusi add 622; we have to
take account
of the Moslem year being l
unar
and
only
heving
354 days, as compared with
our
solar year of 365Y. days. A hundred
Moslem
years are equal to ninety-sewn of our years .
This
meaos
that when
faced
with
a
date
1ike
1
'Yt '
we
must do three
things
.
(1)
We change it into European numera ls .\l't'I"'
becomes 1223
.
(2) As there are three
mo
re lunar years per
hundred
than
there
are solar, we subtract
3%, i,e. 3
x
2
for the
1200 A.H.,
and another
1
for
the
remaining
23 , as
this
is getting
on
for a
third
of
another hundred,
making
37
altogether.
(3) We add 622, to bring A.H. back to the same starting lineas A.O.
So
our
sum
is
1223 A.H .
37
1186
+ 622
-
1808 A .O.
1
223
A.H. ·¡1 ·
the dltro 1of 1he
Jle 3l'ssion .ni tl'ftlllltt1m:inJlu 1nn1, Milhmu.d ll ;a1nd ·ttils
is
GQ.Uil lllelJLlO
ll OO
A\D
..
·exanilroi
.a c•
:iin _of M<l<'occo
,..;¡tti
0
th
e
dlt.'lll
't J 7 t .
No
1
need tc:l
Jl'd'ltUliter.aw
ilfü. Wl
.wbtl'lUlt 3x13 fl)r thc luind01ds A:H . Jin:d 2 mor.e l:JC.cal Jl 71 is'11.b0ut tWU-thírtb·:ot11 b1rth1n
hundre.d,:end itie
n
we·oootra2.
:f.hll
:1
um .tflll:ds
·
cn1
AJH.
~
lruJO
.. 6X
"".HlS2.»..D.
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