Caucasus (Post-Seljuk). Uncertain local ruler (ʿAḍud al-Dīn Garshāsp), late 6th-early 7th century AH = late 12th-early 13th century AD. Fals (Bronze, 25 mm, 3.56 g, 1 h), uncertain mint in Georgia or Armenia. In three lines: lā ilāha illā Allāh / ʿAḍud al-Dīn / Garshāsp (‘There is no deity but God. ʿAḍud al-Dīn Garshāsp’ in Arabic). Marginal legend mostly off flan. Rev. Central device: a four-lobed rosette enclosing a cross-like motif. Marginal legend mostly illegible, traces of: Muḥammad rasūl Allāh (‘Muhammad is the messenger of God’ in Arabic). Apparently unpublished. Pierced and small deposits, otherwise, good very fine.


The ruler’s name, Garshāsp, is distinctly Iranian, paired with the Islamic laqab ʿAḍud al-Dīn (‘Support of the Faith’), reflecting the Persianised titles typical of local dynasts in the Shirvān and Arrān region.

The reverse device, a four-lobed rosette enclosing a cross-like motif, is particularly noteworthy. Tt represents a hybrid ornamental form, combining Islamic geometric design with visual elements resonant of the neighbouring Christian milieu of Georgia and Armenia, where such cross-derived motifs appear in a regional artistic context.

Coins of this kind belong to a poorly documented period of political fragmentation in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, when minor rulers and local authorities issued coinage now often known only from numismatic evidence.