CRUSADERS. Christian Arabic Dirhams. Dirham (Silver, 21 mm, 2.66 g, 6 h), Akka (Acre), 1251. Cross pattée in center; within a square, ‘Allāh wāḥid huwa / al-īmān wāḥid / al-maʿmūdiyya wāḥida’ (‘God is one, the faith is one, the baptism is one’ in Arabic; cf. Ephesians 4:5); in the margin, ‘[ḍuriba bi ʿAkkā sana / alf wa miʾatayn / aḥad wa khamsīn] / li-tajassud al-masīḥ’ (‘Struck in ʿAkka in the year 1251 of the incarnation of the Messiah’ in Arabic). Rev. Within a square, ‘al-ab wa al-ibn / wa al-rūḥ al-qudus / ilāh wāḥid’ (‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: One Divinity’ in Arabic); in the margin, ‘[lahū al-majd / ilā abad] / al-abadīn / [āmīn āmīn] (‘His is the glory forever and ever, amen, amen’ in Arabic). CCS 15. Metcalf, Crusades, 229ff. Wäckerlin 232. Rare. Slightly crystallzed and with minor areas of weakness, otherwise, good very fine.

This short-lived issue of dirhams bearing a cross and Christian legends in Arabic was introduced in 1251 as a reaction to an intervention by Odo of Chateauroux, Cardinal-Bishop of Tusculum (1244-1273) and Papal legate on the Seventh Crusade, who disapproved of the longstanding practice in the Kingdom of Jerusalem of imitating Ayyubid dirhams with their Muslim inscriptions and datings. Due to the lack of acceptance of the new Christian coins by the Muslim population in the Levant, the issue was replaced soon thereafter by dirhams bearing no cross and a more vague legend reading 'in the name of God the merciful, the compassionate'. This common monotheistic formula was in accordance with a decision by Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254), who in 1253 permanently forbade the naming of and dating after Mohammad on Christian coins. It was also vague enough, however, to neither offend the Muslim nor the Christian population of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.