Fals - al-Ẓāhir Baybars I

Baybars I came to power through the assassination of his own sultan, Qutuz, days after the Mamluk victory at Ain Jalut in 1260 — the battle that turned back the Mongol advance into Egypt and Syria. His copper fals coinage served the markets and bazaars that sustained his relentless military machine, funding campaigns that dismantled the remaining Crusader strongholds along the Levantine coast. These small-denomination pieces circulated hard through souks and army camps alike.

Baybars also ran a sophisticated postal relay system, the barid, that moved dispatches from Cairo to Damascus in under 24 hours — the administrative backbone behind his remarkably coordinated campaigns.