ISLAMIC, Ayyubids. Yemen. al-'Aziz Tughtigin, AH 577-593 / AD 1181-1197. Half Dirham (Silver, 18 mm, 0.61 g), dirham saghir (half dirham), Adan, without date. Album 1090. Very rare. Good very fine.


Al-'Aziz Tughtigin was the younger brother of Al-Nasir I Salah al-Din Yusuf, or Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and scourge of the Crusaders. In AH 569 (AD 1174), Saladin sent his older brother Al-Mu'azzam Turan Shah on a campaign to Yemen to bring down a heretical leader, in the course of which Turan Shah conquered Zabid, 'Adan and San'a. He left Yemen in AH 571 (AD 1176) to become Saladin's governor of Syria and was replaced as Emir of Yemen, albeit only a few years later, by the younger brother of the Sultan, al-Aziz Tughtigin.