Sanjar Shah ruled the Jazira region — roughly the upper Mesopotamian steppe between the Tigris and Euphrates — as a vassal of the Zengid dynasty, though he maneuvered with considerable autonomy during the fractious succession struggles following Nur al-Din's death in 1174. Copper dirhams of this type were essential to local market exchange precisely because silver coinage was intermittently scarce or hoarded during periods of political instability across the northern Jazira.
The A#1882 reference places this within Album's classification of Artuqid-adjacent issues, a grouping that reflects how thoroughly overlapping jurisdictions and tribute relationships blurred autonomous minting in the region.
Sanjar Shah ruled the Jazira region — roughly the upper Mesopotamian steppe between the Tigris and Euphrates — as a vassal of the Zengid dynasty, though he maneuvered with considerable autonomy during the fractious succession struggles following Nur al-Din's death in 1174. Copper dirhams of this type were essential to local market exchange precisely because silver coinage was intermittently scarce or hoarded during periods of political instability across the northern Jazira.
The A#1882 reference places this within Album's classification of Artuqid-adjacent issues, a grouping that reflects how thoroughly overlapping jurisdictions and tribute relationships blurred autonomous minting in the region.