Struck the Year of Saladin’s Death

239, Lot: 603. Estimate $150. Sold for $250. 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, 12.99 g, 6h). Dated AH 589 (AD 1193). Three standing figures around central seated figure / Legend within in circle, citing the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir; titles of Arslan and date in marginal legend. S&S Type 35.1; Album 1829.3. Good VF, dark brown patina.

The obverse design has long been interpreted as a scene of mourning over the death of Saladin. Spengler and Sayles have argued that it represents Virgo surrounded by planets, and relates to an astronomical event of AD 1186 that was thought to portend calamitous events (corroborated by the death of Saladin in the year that this coin was struck).