Catalog
Dirhem - Murad III Baghdad
| Issuer | Ottoman Empire |
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| Year | 1575 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.47 g |
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| Obverse description | Hammered silver flan bearing a dense field of Arabic calligraphic inscriptions in the Ottoman thuluth style, occupying the full face of the coin without a defined border. The legends, struck in bold relief, carry the royal titulature of Sultan Murad III including his name and regnal epithets arranged across multiple lines. The irregular flan exhibits characteristic hammered surfaces with slight weakness at the periphery. No figural imagery is present, consistent with Islamic numismatic tradition. |
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| Reverse description | Reverse displays a central cartouche containing bold Arabic calligraphic text, likely bearing the mint name Baghdad (بغداد) and the regnal year 982 AH, surrounded by a circular border legend also in Arabic script. The inscription is struck in high relief against a flat field, with the characteristic broad, flowing strokes of Ottoman hammered coinage. The flan edges are irregular, typical of hand-struck provincial Ottoman issues of the sixteenth century. |
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| Additional information |
Murad III ascended the throne in 1574 following the death of Selim II, and Baghdad at this point had been under Ottoman control since Suleiman the Magnificent's campaign of 1534 — a conquest that ended nearly a century of Safavid contest over the city. The Baghdad mint was strategically maintained precisely because the eastern frontier remained contested; Safavid pressure never fully abated, and the mint's output served logistical as much as economic purposes.
Murad III's reign saw the resumption of serious Ottoman-Safavid warfare in 1578, just three years after this piece was struck.