Islamic Rare huge AE dirham, Saif al-din Ghazi II (1170-80), al-Mawsil mint, Zangids

ISLAMIC, Ayyubids. Mayyafariqin & Jabal Sinjar. al-Awhad Najm al-Din Ayyub. AH 596-607 / AD 1200-1210. Æ Dirham (37mm, 10.20 g, 3h). Dated AH 605 (AD 1208/9). Mantled bust facing, wearing turban / Kalima and legend citing al-Adil Abu Bakr as overlord within and around six-pointed star composed of two triangles. 30mm, 12.78 grams. Mayyafariqin mint. Whelan Type A; Balog, Ayyubids 845; Album 856.2. 

The medieval figural copper coins of the Artuqids, Zangids, and other contemporary Islamic dynasties are among the most remarkable and unusual issues in Islamic numismatics. Their designs frequently borrowed from ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Persian coinage, reproducing classical busts, imperial portraits, mythological figures, astrological symbols and even the bust of Christ alongside Arabic inscriptions naming Muslim rulers and their titles. This extraordinary fusion of classical imagery and Islamic epigraphy produced a distinctive and often strikingly beautiful coinage, virtually unparalleled in the medieval Islamic world.

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