Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Dirham - 'Izz al-Din Mas'ud I
| Issuer | Emirate of Mosul (Zengid dynasty) |
|---|---|
| Year | 577 (1181) |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Album Islamic #1863.1 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central field occupied by a multi-line Arabic inscription arranged in three or four horizontal registers within a plain linear border, containing the name and honorific titles of the Zengid ruler 'Izz al-Din Mas'ud I. The Kufic-style lettering is boldly struck and fills the field in the manner typical of Zengid and contemporaneous Jaziran bronze dirhams. An outer marginal border of geometric or rope-pattern ornament frames the inscription. The die work is characteristic of the Mosul mint under the Zengid dynasty in the late 12th century. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | 577 (1181) |
| Additional information |
Izz al-Din Mas'ud I ruled Mosul from 1180 to 1193, a period during which the Zengid hold on northern Iraq was increasingly precarious — Saladin had already dismantled the Syrian branch of the dynasty and was methodically tightening his grip on the region. Mas'ud managed to retain Mosul largely by negotiating vassalage rather than resisting outright, a political calculation that kept the mint active even as Zengid autonomy eroded.
Album 1863.1 distinguishes this type from related Zengid bronzes by its specific combination of figural and astral imagery, a feature of the broader "Mesopotamian dirham" tradition that flourished under Artuqid and Zengid patronage in the 12th century.