Ayyubids. Yemen. al-'Aziz Tughtigin, AH 577-593 / AD 1181-1197. 1/2 Dirham (Silver, 19 mm, 0.70 g, 6 h), citing the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh, mint illegible, no date. Within and around double triangle: al-Imām Aḥmad A/bu’l-ʿAbbās / al-Nāṣir around: li-dīn Allāh / amīr al-muʾminīn (‘Imam Aḥmad Abu’l-ʿAbbās al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh / Commander of the Believers’ in Arabic). Rev. Within double triangle: al-malik al-ʿAzīz / Ṭughtikīn / ibn Ayyūb (‘King al-ʿAzīz Ṭughtikīn son of Ayyūb’ in Arabic). Around: ḍuriba hādhā al-dirham … (‘This dirham was struck …’ in Arabic; remainder illegible). Album 1090. Very rare and lightly toned. Areas of weakness and some edge faults, otherwise, very fine.



This distinctive fractional dirham belongs to the Ayyubid coinage of Yemen under al-ʿAzīz Ṭughtikīn ibn Ayyūb, brother of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin). Ṭughtikīn ruled Yemen as part of the wider Ayyubid imperial network extending across Egypt, Syria, and Arabia during the late 6th century AH.