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Dirham - Fakhr al-Din Qara Arslan figure with globe and scepter
| Issuer | Artuqids of Hisn Kayfa and Amid |
|---|---|
| Year | 1161 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | Islamic#1820.4 , SS I#4 , ICV I#1176 , Zeno cat#20386 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse field entirely occupied by a multi-line Arabic Kufic inscription arranged in four to five horizontal lines, presenting the titles and name of the ruler along with the Abbasid caliph's acknowledgment, in the bold angular Kufic style typical of Artuqid dirhams. The inscription is contained within a plain inner field, surrounded by a continuous beaded border. The lettering is deeply struck and well-defined, with some ligatures and decorative terminals characteristic of 12th-century Anatolian Islamic epigraphy. |
| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Fakhr al-Din Qara Arslan ruled Hisn Kayfa from roughly 1144 to 1167, navigating the fractious politics of the Jazira during the Zengid ascendancy — a period when small Artuqid lords maintained autonomy largely through careful neutrality and strategic marriage alliances. The Artuqids were unusual among their contemporaries in producing figural copper coinage at a time when much of the Islamic world was moving away from representational imagery, a practice that almost certainly reflects the persistence of Byzantine and Syriac Christian visual culture in the upper Tigris region.
The globe-and-scepter type belongs to a broader Artuqid tradition of borrowing Hellenistic and late Roman imperial iconographic conventions, filtered through local workshop habits rather than any direct numismatic copying.