Fractional Dirham - Fakhr al-Din Il-Ghazi I

Il-Ghazi I holds an unusual place in the history of the Crusader conflicts — it was his forces that destroyed the army of Roger of Antioch at the Field of Blood in 1119, one of the most decisive Crusader defeats of the twelfth century. These fractional billon pieces were struck during exactly that period of his maximum political authority, when Artuqid control briefly extended into the fractured zones between Aleppo and the Latin principalities.

The billon alloy itself reflects chronic silver shortages across the region during Seljuk fragmentation, when subsidiary coinage was debased out of necessity rather than policy.