Ayyubids. Yemen. In name of al-Kamil I Muhammad (of Egypt), AH 631-634 / AD 1233-1236. Dirham Kabir (Silver, 25 mm, 2.13 g, 2 h), citing the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh and the Ayyubid overlord al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad, Taʿizz (?), AH 632 = AD 1234/5. Central field within circle looped thrice into the margin, in four lines: lā ilāha illā Allāh / Muḥammad rasūl Allāh / al-imām Abū Jaʿfar / al-Manṣūr (‘There is no deity but God / Muḥammad is the Messenger of God / the Imam Abū Jaʿfar / al-Manṣūr’ in Arabic). Continued in the margin: al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh amīr al-muʾminīn (‘al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh, Commander of the Believers’ in Arabic). Rev. Central field within circle looped thrice into the margin, in four lines: al-malik al-Kā- / -mil Abī al-Maʿālī Muḥammad al-malik / al-ʿĀdil Sayf al-D/īn Abū Bakr (‘King al-Kāmil Abū al-Maʿālī Muḥammad, the just king Sayf al-Dīn Abū Bakr’ in Arabic). Margin: al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh amīr al-muʾminīn ḍuriba bi-Zabīd sana iḥdā wa-thalāthīn wa-sitt-miʾa (‘al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh, Commander of the Believers. Struck in Zabīd in the year six hundred and thirty-one’ in Arabic). Album 1099. Very rare. Minor marks, light areas of weakness and small edge chips, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



This interesting Yemeni Ayyubid dirham was struck in the name of al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad, the principal Ayyubid ruler in Cairo and one of the most important members of the Ayyubid dynasty after Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin). Although struck in Yemen, the coin reflects the political and dynastic ties linking the Yemeni branch of the Ayyubids with the central Ayyubid authority in Egypt.