ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Mengüjekids (Erzincan & Kermakh). Fakhr al-Din Bahram Shah, AH 560-622 / AD 1165-1225. Dirham (Bronze, 27 mm, 5.80 g), Arzanjan (Erzincan), AH 579 = 1183/4. Head with long hair to left in a dotted hexagon; mint and date formula in the margin. Rev. Within a square, ‘malik al-umarā / shāh ʿādil / Bahrāmshāh’ (‘King of amirs, the just king, Bahramshah’ in Arabic); illegible margin. Album 1892.3. Rare. Areas of weakness and with some earthen deposits and cleaning scratches, otherwise, good fine.


Marco Polo visited Arzanjan (modern Erzincan) less than a century after this coin was issued, reporting that the 'the people [of Arzanjan] are Armenians', and that Arzanjan was the 'noblest of cities' and the See of an Armenian Archbishop.