Fals - al-Zahir Jaqmaq

Al-Zahir Jaqmaq ruled the Mamluk Sultanate for fifteen years after deposing his predecessor Barsbay in 1438 — a comparatively stable tenure in a period when sultans were frequently overthrown within months. His copper fals coinage served the low-end urban market in Cairo and the provincial cities, where silver dirhams were too valuable for daily small transactions. The fals was chronically debased and reissued across successive reigns, making attribution to a specific sultan dependent almost entirely on the throne name in the inscription rather than any consistent metallurgical standard.