Morton & Eden

Auctions 95-96  –  24 October 2018

Morton & Eden, Auctions 95-96

200 Coins of the Islamic World – Important Greek and Roman Coins

We, 24.10.2018, from 1:00 PM CEST
The auction is closed.

Description

ABBASID, AL-MUQTADIR (295-320h), Dinar, Tarsus 307h. Weight: 3.88g Reference: cf Bernardi 242Gk [this date not listed]. Edge crimped, considerable weak striking but mint and date clear, fine to good fine for issue and of the highest rarity, apparently an unpublished date for this extremely rare Abbasid gold mint. The site of Tarsus has been occupied continually for more than six thousand years, with its origins stretching back to Neolithic times. Its name dates back at least to Hittite times and is also found in the written records of the Assyrians, who ruled Tarsus before the city came under Persian control. Tarsus was the seat of a Persian satrapy in 400 BC, later becoming part of the Hellenistic world after Alexander the Great passed through the city in 333 BC. Pompey the Great made Tarsus subject to Rome in 67BC, and the city continued to be an important cultural and political centre during the Roman period. The Roman emperor Julian the Apostate died and was buried there in 363h, having been wounded at the Battle of Samarra during his campaigns against the Persians and following his unsuccessful attempt to capture Ctesiphon. It seems that Muslim armies first reached Tarsus during the 30s Hijri, if not earlier, and Tarsus seems to have found itself on the frontier between Islam and Byzantium. The emperor Heraclius reportedly abandoned the city and its hinterland, withdrawing the population and leaving the region between Tarsus and Antioch as a ‘dead zone.’ Neither side seems to have attempted to occupy the city for more than a century thereafter, until Harun al-Rashid rebuilt it as a frontier fortress and settled 5,000 people there. It was recaptured by the Byzantines soon afterwards, who were only dislodged after the end of the civil war between al-Amin and al-Ma’mun. It was under al-Ma’mun that Tarsus became a key base for the frequent raids into Byzantine territory conducted during the third century Hijri. Tarsus remained under Abbasid control until the mid-260s, when it was granted to Ahmad b. Tulun. The Tulunids continued to hold the city, with a few brief interruptions, until al-Mu‘tadid brought it back under Abbasid authority in the early 280s. Four decades later, as Abbasid authority dwindled, the city came firstly under the control of the Ikhshidids and then of the Hamdanids, before the Byzantines finally took control of Tarsus in the mid-fourth century. Numismatically, the first Islamic coins struck at Tarsus were copper issues issued under the Abbasids and Tulunids. With the exception of a silver dirham tentatively assigned to 302h, it seems that production of regular Abbasid silver and gold began there in 307h – the year in which this unpublished dinar was produced.
Tax: AMS

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Price realized 8'000 GBP
Starting price 5'600 GBP
Estimate 7'000 GBP
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