ISLAMIC, Arabia. Sulayhids. 'Arwa bint Ahmad, AH 484-532 / AD 1091-1137. 1/2 Dinar (Gold, 19 mm, 1.19 g, 9 h), Dhu Jibla, AH [4]98 = 1104/5. Within three concentric circles, Shiʿa kalima in a pseudo-Kufic style, ‘lā ilāha illā Allāh / Muḥammad rasūl Allāh / ʿAlī walī Allāh’ (‘There is no deity but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Ali is the friend of Allah’ in Arabic); in the margin, mint and date formula in a blundered style consisting of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
Rev. Within a circle, in the name of her deceased husband al-Mukarram Ahmad (AH 473-484 / AD 1081-1091), ‘al-malik al-sayyid / al-Mukarram ʿuẓām / al-ʿarab sulṭān / amīr al-muʾminīn’ (‘The king, the lord, al-Mukarram, the chief of the Arabs, sultan under the Commander of the Believers’ in Arabic in a blundered style); in the margin, citing the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir billah (AH 427-487 / AD 1036-1094), ‘al-imām Maʿadd Abū Tamīm al-Mustanṣir billāh amīr al-muʾminīn’ (‘Imam Maʿadd Abu Tamim al-Mustansir billah, Commander of the Believers’ in Arabic in a blundered style). Album 1078.1. Some die wear
, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.
From a West German collection, formed since the 1960s.