Fals - al-Salih Ayyub Hamah

Al-Salih Ayyub's control of Hamah was politically awkward — he held the city only intermittently, and its local mint operated under conditions of disputed Ayyubid suzerainty throughout the 1240s. This fals belongs to a period when the broader sultanate was fracturing under dynastic rivalry, just before al-Salih's alliance with the Khwarazmian mercenaries that led to the fall of Jerusalem in 1244 — the same year this piece was struck.

Copper fractions of this type rarely survived in collectible condition; they circulated hard in urban markets where silver was scarce.