★ FALCON HUNTING ★

LE MONDE ARABE
Buyids or Seljuqids
Silver double-sided medallion with a hunting motif circa 1100-1200 CE. Obverse and reverse: Ruler with falcon in his left hand riding left. Marginal inscription: Qur’an CXII: 1-4. 2,96g. Ilisch 1985, 33var.

An extraordinary example of this medallion representing falcon hunting. Good very fine.

Heritage World Coin Auctions NYS Sale 3021 (January 2013), 21649.

This beautiful and carefully designed medallion weighing a little less than a classical dirham used in medieval Iran features an Islamic ruler depicted as a rider with a falcon sitting on his wrist. The marginal section of the medallion filled in with the Qur’anic Surat al-Ikhlāṣ illustrates the concept of monotheism in Islam.