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Dirham - Muzaffar al-Din Kokburi Lion-rider type - Irbil mint
| Issuer | Begtegīnid dynasty |
|---|---|
| Year | 1190-1218 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse bears a multi-line Arabic inscription filling the entire field, arranged in horizontal registers framed by marginal legends on the left and right sides. The central inscription names the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah, Commander of the Faithful, and the issuing ruler Muzaffar al-Din Kokburi ibn Ali, in the characteristic format of Jaziran feudatory coinage. The margins contain the Shahada components, with the name of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. A beaded border runs along the lower portion of the coin, consistent with the irregular flan typical of hammered copper dirhams of this series. |
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| Mintage | 586 (1190) - - 587 (1191) - - 590 (1194) - - 597 (1201) - - 598 (1202) - - 599 (1203) - - 600 (1204) - - 602 (1206) - - 604 (1208) - - 605 (1209) - - 606 (1210) - - 607 (1211) - - 609 (1213) - - 614 (1218) - - |
| Additional information |
Muzaffar al-Din Kokburi governed Irbil as a semi-autonomous vassal under Saladin and later the Ayyubids for nearly four decades, yet managed to maintain a strikingly independent local coinage throughout. The lion-rider type is among the most discussed of all Artuqid-influenced coppers precisely because its iconography draws on pre-Islamic Central Asian traditions that had no business surviving this deep into the Ayyubid sphere — and yet here it is.
Kokburi is also remembered as the originator of the Mawlid al-Nabi as a large-scale public festival at Irbil, which drew scholars and poets from across the Islamic world annually.