Dirham - al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf - Saladin Damascus

Saladin's Damascus dirhams occupy a politically charged position in Ayyubid numismatics. He struck coins in Damascus only after consolidating control over Syria in 1174 — seized opportunistically following the death of Nur ad-Din — and the Damascus mint served partly as a statement of legitimacy to a city still skeptical of Ayyubid authority. The inclusion of the Abbasid caliph's name on the coinage was not devotion but diplomacy: Saladin needed Baghdad's nominal endorsement while pursuing an agenda Baghdad never fully controlled.

Bal I#90 is among the more frequently encountered types of his Syrian issues, though specimens without flat areas from worn dies are harder to find than mintage alone would suggest.