The anonymous Tiflis dirhams of the early Ilkhanate period reflect a deliberate political ambiguity: the khans who struck them — Hulagu and his immediate successors — had not yet committed publicly to Islam, and omitting the ruler's name from the coinage avoided the theologically loaded implications of a non-Muslim name appearing on currency handled by a largely Muslim population. Tiflis, captured in 1256, was one of the few Georgian urban mints the Ilkhans kept operational, its output serving a Caucasian commercial zone that had used silver dirhams continuously since the early Abbasid period.
Album's type 2 distinction separates this issue from the slightly earlier anonymous fabric by differences in the kalima arrangement and marginal inscription layout.
The anonymous Tiflis dirhams of the early Ilkhanate period reflect a deliberate political ambiguity: the khans who struck them — Hulagu and his immediate successors — had not yet committed publicly to Islam, and omitting the ruler's name from the coinage avoided the theologically loaded implications of a non-Muslim name appearing on currency handled by a largely Muslim population. Tiflis, captured in 1256, was one of the few Georgian urban mints the Ilkhans kept operational, its output serving a Caucasian commercial zone that had used silver dirhams continuously since the early Abbasid period.
Album's type 2 distinction separates this issue from the slightly earlier anonymous fabric by differences in the kalima arrangement and marginal inscription layout.