Fals - al-Zahir Ghazi Ornamented square, two lines

Al-Zahir Ghazi ruled Aleppo for over three decades as one of Saladin's most capable sons, consolidating the emirate after his father's death in 1193 and defending it against both Crusader pressure and rival Ayyubid branches. The bronze fals was the workhorse of everyday urban commerce — grain markets, artisan wages, bathhouse fees — entirely beneath the register of the silver dirhams historians tend to track. Album 847.1 covers a tight typological cluster within al-Zahir's long reign, and die linkage studies on Zeno-documented specimens suggest multiple mint phases, likely tied to periods of military expenditure and urban construction activity in Aleppo itself.