166, Lot: 210. Estimate $100. Sold for $105. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Mardin). Husam al-Din Yuluq Arslan. AH 580-597 / AD 1184-1200. Æ Dirhem (31mm, 10.13 g). No mint or date. Large diademed Roman-style male head on the right, facing left, smaller crowned Byzantine-style bust facing front / Four line legend citing the Ayyubid overlord Saladin. Whelan Type II; S/S 34; Album 1829.2; MWI 1035-6. VF, brown patina, some die rust on reverse.

On this piece, the spiky hair on the Roman portrait closely resembles a radiate head, bringing attention to the hypothesis that the type depicts an astrological event, the occultation of Jupiter as it passed behind the Sun on 19 December, AD 1189 (late in AH 585) hence the astrological identification of this type as the Sun and Jupiter. Whelan also notes that the smaller bust, while clad in Byzantine robes, wears a Sasanian crenelated crown, thus bringing three distinct influences into play on this coin.