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Jital - 'Ala al-din Muhammad 'Muhammad II of Khwarezm' Horse type - Baluqan Mint
| Issuer | Khwarezmian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1200-1220 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | A schematically rendered horse depicted in profile facing left, shown in a stylized, angular manner typical of Khwarezmian billon jitals. The horse's body fills the central field, with legs depicted in a striding pose. Decorative elements and abbreviated Arabic or pseudo-Arabic legends appear in the upper field surrounding the animal. The flan is irregular and the relief is bold though somewhat crude in execution, consistent with hammered provincial coinage of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Multiple lines of Persian inscription in the Naskh script filling the central field, conveying the ruler's name and titles associated with Sultan 'Ala al-Din Muhammad II of Khwarezm. The legends are arranged in horizontal registers across the flan, with additional marginal inscriptions partially visible along the rim. The script is boldly struck but shows characteristic irregularities of hammered billon coinage, with some areas of weak strike near the edges. The overall layout is consistent with Tye type 226 attribution for the Baluqan mint. |
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| Additional information |
Muhammad II's Khwarezmian Empire briefly controlled one of the largest territorial expanses in Islamic history before Genghis Khan's campaigns of 1219–1221 effectively ended it. The Baluqan mint, active in the northern reaches of Khwarezm, produced jitals for a commercial economy built on Silk Road transit trade — revenue that funded the very armies that proved insufficient against the Mongols. Billon jitals of this horse type circulated widely across the region's bazaars, and surviving examples frequently show the heavy wear consistent with intensive mercantile use before the Mongol destruction of the mint cities made further production impossible.