ISLAMIC, Arabia. Wahhabi Sharifs of Makka. temp. Ghālib ibn Musāʿid, AH 1202-1228 / AD 1788-1813. Mahmudi (Bronze, 23 mm, 11.91 g, 6 h), Makka (Mecca), AH 1222 = AD 1807/8. ‘Makka / ḍarb’ (‘Struck in Makka’ in Arabic). Rev. ‘sana 1222’ (‘year 1222’ in Arabic). Album S1160 (wrongly described as AR). Rare. Areas of weakness and with some porosity and deposits, otherwise, good very fine.


This Mahmudi holds particular historical significance as it bears witness to the brief Wahhabi occupation of Mecca from 1803 to 1813. Because of ongoing wars in Europe and against Russia, the Ottomans were slow to respond to this humiliation. Eventually, the Sultan tasked the renowned Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769–1849), viceroy of Egypt, with restoring the holiest of all holy places to Ottoman control. In a series of intense battles, Egyptian forces defeated the Wahhabis in the so-called Wahhabi War of 1811-1818. Mecca was retaken in 1813, and in 1818, the Wahhabi Imam Abdullah bin Saud Al Saud was publicly beheaded in Istanbul.

Interestingly, this coin type resembles contemporary copper paisa coins from Western India. It has been suggested that Muslim die engravers from India traveled to Arabia to produce these coins.