ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Mardin). Husam al-Din Yuluq Arslan, AH 580-597 / AD 1184-1200. Dirham (Bronze, 30 mm, 13.23 g, 7 h), Mardin, AH 589 = AD 1193/4. Three standing figures around a central female figure seated to the left in an attitude of lamentation. Rev. Citing the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Nasir li-din Allah (AH 575-622 / AD 1180-1225) and the Ayyubid overlord al-ʿAdil Abu Bakr I Sayf al-Din (AH 592-615 / AD 1196-1218) within a circle, ‘al-malik al-ʿādil / al-imām al-Nā/ṣir li’l-Dīn / amīr al-muʾminīn / Sayf al-Dīn’ (‘Imam al-Nasir li’l-Dīn, Commander of the Believers. The just king Sayf al-Din’ in Arabic); to right and left, ‘Abū Bakr ‒ ibn Ayyūb’ (‘Abu Bakr son of Ayyub’ in Arabic); in the margin, ‘Ḥusām al-Dīn malik Diyārbakr Yūluq Arslān ibn Īl Ghāzī ibn Urtuq tisʿ wa thamānīn wa khamsa miʾa’ (‘Husam al-Din, king of Diyarbakr, Yuluq Arslan son of Il Ghazi son of Urtuq. [Year] 589’ in Arabic). Album 1829.3. Repatinated and with a few deposits, otherwise, very fine.



The scene on the obverse has been interpreted either as the mourning over the death of Saladin, or as an astrological event depicting Virgo, the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac, surrounded by planets.