ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Mengüjekids (Erzincan & Kermakh). Fakhr al-Din Bahram Shah, AH 560-622 / AD 1165-1225. Dirham (Bronze, 29 mm, 9.10 g), Arzanjan (Erzincan), AH 600 = 1203/4. Introducing himself around and within a central circle as ‘[al-ʿabd] al-ḍaʿīf al-muḥtāj ilā [raḥmat Allāh] / taʿālā’ (‘The weak servant, in need of the mercy of Allah, the Exalted’ in Arabic). Rev. Continuation of the obverse legend within a square, ‘Bahrāmshāh / [ibn Dāwūd]’ (‘Bahramshah, son of Daʾud’ in Arabic); around, ‘ḍuriba bi madīnat / Arzanjān / [fī shuhūr / sana] sitta miʾa’ (‘Struck in the city of Arzanjan in the months of the year 600’ in Arabic). Album 1892.4. Extremely rare. Somewhat rough and with areas of weakness, otherwise, 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.