ISLAMIC, Fatimids. al-Mustansir billah, AH 427-487 / AD 1036-1094. Dinar (Gold, 22 mm, 4.11 g, 10 h), second standard type, al-Iskandariyya, AH 481 = AD 1088/9. Within a central circle, ‘ʿAlī / lā ilāha illā Allāh / waḥdahū lā sharīka lahū / Muḥammad rasūl Allāh / walī Allāh’ (‘There is no deity but Allah, the One, there is no partner to Him. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Ali is the friend of Allah’ in Arabic); in the margin, ‘Muḥammad rasūl Allāh arsalahū bi al-hudā wa dīn al-ḥaqq liyuẓhirahū ʿalā al-dīn kullih wa law kariha al-mushrikūn’ (‘Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. He sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, so that He may make it overcome all religions, even though the unbelievers may dislike it’ in Arabic).
Rev. Within a central circle, ‘Maʿadd / ʿabd Allāh wa waliyyuhū / al-imām Abū Tamīm / al-Mustanṣir billāh / amīr al-muʾminīn / ʿāl’ (‘The servant of Allah and His friend, Imam Maʿadd Abu Tamim al-Mustansir billah, Commander of the Believers. Extremely high [quality]’ in Arabic); in the margin, ‘bism Allāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm ḍuriba hādhā al-dīnār bi al-Iskandariyya sana iḥdā wa thamānīn wa arbaʿa miʾa’ (‘In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. This dinar was struck in al-Iskandariyya in the year 481’ in Arabic). Album 719.2. Very fine.
From the collection of Walter Uhrmeister, formed over the past sixty years.