LE MONDE ARABE
Artuqids of Hisn Kayfa and Amid
Nur al-Din Muhammad AH 562-581 (1167-1185 CE). AE Dirham AH 578 (1182-83 CE), al-Hisn. Obverse: Ruler’s diademed head to left. Marginal inscription: Mint and date. Reverse: malik al-umara muhiy - al-‘adil nur al-din - muhammad bin qara arsla - n bin artuq nasir - al-imam al-nasir - li-din allah. From right: mal‘un man. From left: yaghayyiruhu. 17,68g. Spengler&Sayles vol. I, type 11.

A beautiful specimen of this interesting type.

Featuring decorative motifs taken from Sasanian, Hellenistic and Christian traditions, Artuqid coins are a witness of tolerance towards other religions. The use of large, pictorial coins that employed motifs from the past may have resulted from a desire to communicate with and reassure the ethnically and religiously diverse local population. An interesting feature of this coinage is the caution mal‘ūn man yaghayyiruhū warning the fakers that ‘cursed be he who changes (this dirham)’.