Catalog
Sultani - Suleiman II
| Issuer | Regency of Tripoli |
|---|---|
| Year | 1688 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents multiple horizontal registers of Arabic calligraphic inscription occupying the full central field, enclosed within a beaded border. The legends, executed in Ottoman script typical of late seventeenth-century North African coinage, include the sultan's titles and the mint formula. The irregular, hammered flan produces a slightly wavy periphery consistent with contemporary Tripolitan gold coinage. The field shows no additional decorative devices, the calligraphic text alone forming the entire design. |
| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Tripoli's regency coinage of this period occupied an awkward political position — nominally Ottoman, practically autonomous, and perpetually negotiating both. Suleiman II came to the throne in 1687 after his brother Mehmed IV was deposed by the Janissaries, having spent 39 years confined in the kafes, the Ottoman palace cage system for sequestering princes from succession intrigues. His reign lasted only four years.
KM#18 is among the scarcer provincial gold issues of the late 17th-century Maghreb, with Tripolitanian mint output dwarfed by the major Ottoman centers at Constantinople and Cairo.