the ottoman coinage of tilimsan / michael l. bates

8/19/2019 The Ottoman coinage of Tilimsan / Michael L. Bates

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THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

MUSEUM NOTES

26

XAnERIO^^^^Sjt^f JNUMISMATIC JVSOCIETY /

THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETYNEW YORK

1981

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ANSMN 26 (1981) (g) 1981 The American Numismatic Socieyt

THE OTTOMAN COINAGE OF TILIMSĀN (Plate 32) Michael L. Bates

The conquest of Oran by the Spanish in 1509, and of Algiers by the Ottomans in 1516, left the Ziyânid rulers of Tilimsān (modern Tlemcen, in northwestern Algeria) at the mercy of the two major powers. During the next 42 years, six Ziyânids succeeded one another as nominal rulers, dependent in fact on Spain or the Turks. In 964 H./A.D. 1556 the pretense of Ziyânid sovereignty was abandoned by the Ottomans, who installed a governor in Tilimsān. There followed a series of remarkable gold coins, until after 1012/1603, struck in the names of the Ottoman

sultans but quite different from ordinary Ottoman coinage. Recently Henri Arroyo published an excellent study of these issues,1 but unfortunately his information on the examples in the American Numismatic Society, provided to him long ago by the present author, is not completely accurate.2 The ANS has two important Ottoman coins

1 H. Arroyo, "The Ottoman Coinage of Tilimsān," Oriental Numismatic Society Occasional Paper no. 12 (January 1979).

2 Mr. Arroyo wrote to me in 1971 and again in 1972, asking for information on Tilimsān Ottoman coins in the ANS and enclosing photographs of his coin of Muham-

mad III. The information sent to him was derived from the attributions of my predecessors E. T. Newell, Howland Wood, and George C. Miles. At that time, being new to the Society's staff and to Islamic numismatics, I was unable to help Arroyo with certain difficult inscriptions on the coins, other than to share his doubts about previous readings. I did not then know of two Tilimsān coins of Sulaymân Qānūnī in the ANS cabinet, and since Arroyo did not suspect their existence, he could not ask me about them. Later, in 1974, Robert Doran wrote me with some very specific questions about the legends of the Sulaymân coins, which he had seen on a previous visit. That letter and subsequent correspondence resulted in my deciphering, with the help of Miles, the inscriptions on all the ANS pieces. Unfortunately, by this time Arroyo's inquiry had been forgotten, so that I neglected to inform him of the new

discoveries. Mr. Doran was to have published the results in a projected general survey of Ottoman coinage, but this work has been long delayed.

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204 Michael II,. Bates

of Tilimsān not known to Arroyo; furthermore, after the information was sent to him, all the ANS coins were more accurately attributed, and their legends fully read. Some other additions to Arroyo's corpus may also be made. It therefore seems appropriate to restudy the corpus, while acknowledging an indebtedness to Arroyo's useful work.

The coins to be described are all of gold, perhaps somewhat debased, and all have horizontal field inscriptions enclosed in a double square, which is in turn surrounded by a circle touching the square at the corners and an outer circle of dots. The sectors between the circle and square contain the mint and date. This general design was introduced in the twelfth century by the Muwahhids and was standard for all Maghribī gold coinage until the seventeenth century. When the Ottomans took Algiers, they replaced its former coinage with standard Ottoman issues, but at Tilimsān the coinage maintained Ziyänid precedents. This may reflect a difference in the administrative status of the two places, but the nature of Ottoman rule at Tilimsān does not seem to have been studied.

SULAYMÃN I, 926-74/1520-66

The earliest coins of Tilimsān with an Ottoman connection are two

issues attributed by Hazard3 to Ziyänid puppets, but acknowledging the Ottoman Sulaymän I Qānūnī. It is questionable, however, whether the Sulaymän named on the coins is really the Ottoman, and other

scholars have assigned these issues to an earlier date. As Arroyo suggests, the attribution is at best tentative; these issues will not be considered here.

There are two coins of the Ottoman Sulaymän from Tilimsān in the American Numismatic Society, hitherto unpublished. These should probably be assigned to the period following the appointment of an Ottoman governor in 964/1556 and before Sulaymän's death in 974/ 1566.

3 Harry W. Hazard, The Numismatic History of Late Medieval North Africa , ANSNS 8 (New York, 1952), pp. 190-91, nos. 670-71.



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Ottoman Coinage of Tilimsān 205

1. Date?

Obv. : Reu . :

* 1 1

ôLjû

¿ ^âJ j y*. JI O ô L*¿ I (3

ô^lj 0¿*3J j-c- ìrn ^

Margin: Margin: ļ 4j J ? j • • • ? ļ • • • . ļ ļ ? À*UJ I ļ ļ) L«*oJü J »XftJ ļ * " * I

ANS, Newell, 19 17;4 4.290 g, 32 mm; Plate 32, 1.

The inscriptions in the field of this coin are taken from the regular gold coinage of Sulayman, except for the addition of the words wa- amrahu , "and his command," on the obverse. The date 926 in ciphers in the obverse field is probably not the actual date of issue, but rather Sulayman's accession date, as on his regular issues. The date in words in the margin may also be 926, but only the century is clear. The visible traces of the decade would also permit sittīn or sab'īn , sixty or seventy.

If so, this would be the true date of issue. The honorific al-mahrūsa, "the guarded (by God)," after the mint name reflects Ottoman practice at some mints, but may be compared to the Ziyanid phrase harasahā Allāh , "may God guard it," which often follows mint names. To generalize, it appears that the authority who determined the legends of this coin knew something of Ottoman practice, but the peculiar epigraphic style and the general design of the coin indicate that the die engraver had been an employee of the Ziyanid mint.

4 All the ANS coins are from the E. T. Newell collection and were purchased by him in Algiers.



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206 Michael L. Bates

2. Date effaced.

Obu. : Rev . :

(jLJu* pli? «« dlLJ I ^3 (^AJI

ý** 4jûâJ

^cJlj ^JI J


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SALIM II, 974-82/1566-74

3. 974 H.

Obv . : Rev. :

I t. ^ L*

¿)ÜaLJI

¿¿I aiCU 88 AJJI

Margin: Margin:

I i v i I òj*3-> I I j"**' o***- 1 ļ O ļ ^ J Sjļļ***.uļJ j I ¿¿mí |

Istanbul Arkeoloji Miizeleri, 4.20 g, 32 mm. Halil Edhem, Muze-i Hu- mäyün : Maskūkāt-i qadîme islâmiyeh qatalôghï , 6: Maskūkāt-i f usmāni - yeh , 1 (Constantinople, 1334/1915-16), no. 1109, pl. 9; Remzi Kocaer, Osmanli Altinlan (Istanbul, 1967), no. 88; Ibrahim and Cevriye Artuk, Istanbul Arkeoloji Mixzerleri Teshirdeki ìslaml Sikkeler Katalogu , 2 (Istanbul, 1974), no. 1602, pl. 68.

As Arroyo recognized, the three authors refer to one and the same

coin. The second word of the second line of the obverse is very casually inscribed. The three authors cited transcribe it sāmān , without suggest- ing what this might mean. Arroyo tentatively suggests rather khâqân , one of the titles of the sultan, but this does not seem to fit grammatically either with what precedes or with what follows (in either context, it should have the definite article). A more plausible reading is al-imān , which fits with the preceding words. "Lord of (divine) assistance and justice and faith." Moreover, it rhymes with the last word of the obverse field, "Sulaymän."

The words "fifteen qîrâts (carats)" in the obverse margin are not easy to understand. If they refer to the weight of the coin, one obtains the value 4.20 -ř- 15 = 0.28 g for the weight of one qîrât, which is rather high.



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Possibly they refer to the fineness of the coin, that is 15/24 gold, or to the weight of gold in it as opposed to its total weight. The phrase is unparal- leled on Islamic coins.

The reverse field legend, which occurs also on the coins that follow, may be translated "Ruler of the two lands and the two seas and Syria and the two Iraqs, may God preserve his rule." This is a conflation of several titular elements often seen on standard Ottoman coins. Al-f Irãqayn ,

"the two Iraqs," probably refers to medieval al-fIrāq, the southern part of Mesopotamia, and al-JazIra, the northern part. The two were considered separate provinces until modern times, but the use of the term here is probably for no other reason than to make the rhyme with al-barrayn wa'l-bahrayn. It must have been frustrating for the die cutter that there was no possible justification for al-shämayn , "the two Syrias." The last line of the reverse is interrupted in the middle by a knotted ornament. Different ornaments will be seen on the subsequent coins in the same position, probably without any significance.

MURÄD III, 982-1003/1574-95

Arroyo lists a coin of Murād III with the date 978, citing Schaend- linger, but this must be a typographical error. The date is before Murād's reign, and the only Tilimsān coin mentioned by Schaendlinger is dated by him to 988 (below, no. 4e).

4. 983 H.

Obv. : Rev. :

¿UU

à o I iAIa. ¿jo? ^ pL« olkLJI *5CL» -OJI

Margin: Margin:

ļ


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Ottoman Coinage of Tilimsän 209

a. National Museum, Copenhagen, 3.52 g, 30 mm, Plate 32, 4a: Stanley Lane-Poole, "The Oriental Cabinet at Copenhagen," NC 1876, p. 271, no. 5; J. 0strup, Catalogue des monnaies arabes et turques du Cabinet Royal des Médailles du Musée National de Copenhague (Copenhagen, 1938), p. 295, no. 2545.

b. British Museum, 4.260 g, 32 mm: Stanley Lane-Poole, Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum , 8: The Coins of the Turks . . . , Class XXVI (London, 1883), p. 97, no. 256, pl. 4.

c. State Historical Museum, Moscow, no. 41 A, 4.160 g, 34 mm: Ciineyt ôlçer, Sovyet Rusya Miizelerindeki (Moskova ve Leningrad ) Nadir Osmanli Madeni Paralan (Istanbul, 1972), p. 7, no. 2.

d. State Historical Museum, Moscow, no. 41B, 2.100 g, 25.6 mm: ôlçer, p. 8, no. 3.

e. München Staatliche Münzsammlung, 4.27 g, 35 mm: Anton C. Schaendlinger, Osmanische Numismatik (Braunschweig, 1973), pl. 2, no. 30; see also pp. 71, 103.

f. Sotheby, 23 April 1980, no. 158; last segment of reverse margin has Madīnat Tilimsän .

The date of this issue has also been read 988 H. Lane-Poole read the

date of the Copenhagen coin as 983. When he saw it, it was in a private collection in Copenhagen, but in the same year his article appeared or the following year, the National Museum cabinet acquired a Tilimsän coin from a Danish collector, Nielsen.6 This must be the same coin, al-

though it was read 988 by Ostrup. Lane-Poole also dated the BM Tilimsän coin 988, but the date on it is partially effaced. Comparison of it with the Copenhagen specimen suggests strongly that the date is the same on both. The Munich coin, dated 988 by Schaendlinger, is similar to the other two. The date can be seen clearly only on the Copenhagen and Sotheby examples, and 983 is evidently preferable on both despite the barbarity of the script.

6 Information provided by Anne Kromann, Assistant Keeper in the Royal Coin Cabinet. I am grateful to her and to Otto Morkholm for providing me with a photo- graph of the coin.



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The obverse field inscription of MurācTs Tilimsan issues is not easy to decipher. The second word of obverse line 2 is especially problematic. In the earliest publications, al-mu'ayyad and al-mu'min were read, but Lane-Poole, in 1883, suggested al-mustaqīm , which has since been accept- ed. It would, however, be better to read al-muqîm. On the coin, the mlm and qāf are linked by a smooth line; Arabic orthography would permit the letter sīn to be represented by such a line, but if the word

is al-mustaqīm, there ought to be a tooth for the letter iã' Either word would be suitable in the context: al-muqīm means "permanent, enduring, while al-mustaqīm means "straightforward, upright." Note the rhyme of al-muqīm with Salim.

5. 989 H.

Described as similar to no. 6 below, of 995 H. Soret collection: F. Soret, "Lettre à ... de Dorn. Troisième lettre sur les

médailles orientales inédites de la collection de M. F. Soret, " RNB 1856, p. 172, no. 177.

6. 995 H.

Obu.: As no. 4. Rev.: As no. 4, but symbol Y in line 4.

Margin: Margin:

ļ A. ļ ii LjU*Jjô ļ ļ I dļfr le- ļ ļ ii f 0ļjļJU*J, J ļ ļ 6|ft Ix-Ô ļ

a. Soret collection: Soret, RNB 1856. p. 172, no. 178, pl. 2, no. 16. b. Arroyo collection: Michael Mitchiner, Oriental Coins and Their

Values: the World of Islam (London, 1977), p. 207, no. 1261, illus.; Arroyo, p. 3, fig. 2.

c. ANS, Newell, 1917, 4.140 g, 35 mm; Plate 32, 6c; symbol V d. ANS, Newell, 1917, 4.132 g, 33 mm; Plate 32, 6d; same reverse die as c. e. Sotheby, 23 April 1980, no. 159; symbol t .

This issue bears no mint name, but is confidently attributed by its resemblance to no. 4 above. The word sana , "year," is replaced by its synonym rām, a common feature of North African coins.



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Möller published one other Tilimsān dinar of Murād III in 1831. 7 Since the marginal legends were effaced, it cannot be assigned to any of the issues listed above. Judging by Möller's description, the word al- sultān in the middle of the obverse field was omitted, but this may be only his mistake.

MUHAMMAD III, 1003-12/1595-1603

7. 1003 H.

Obu.: Rev.: As no. 4, but symbol Y I in line 4.

¿)JÍ' Vij Lfe^cJ I

(jlkLJ 1 ¿1^ ¿IkLJI

Margin: Margin:

ļ ù cJL) I j I J» j-c. ļ cJ lï ļ J» le- 1 I 'j I J» I oU I J» le. I

a. Arroyo collection: Mitchiner, p. 207, no. 1266; Arroyo, pp. 3-4, fig. 3. b. ANS, Newell, 1917, 4.205 g, 33 mm, Plate 32, 7b; symbol Y. c. Sotheby, 23 April 1980, no. 160; symbol í . Digit tāt on obverse. d. Sotheby, 23 April 1980, no. 161. Same dies as b.

The marginal inscriptions of Arroyo's coin are mostly effaced. The issue is therefore dated by the ANS coin, which was originally assigned to 1013 H., probably because the word in the bottom segment was first read eashr, "ten." Although the word is clearly fWM, especially on the obverse, one can understand how it could be misread, for in standard

7 J. H. Möller, De numis orientalibus in numophylacio gothano asservatis commen- tano altera (Erfurt and Gotha, 1831), pp. 53-54, nos. 565-66.



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Arabic it has only one meaning, "swimming," which makes no sense on a coin. In fact, it is probably to be understood here as a plural of the word eām, "year." The normal plural of fām is aewām ; fWM on this coin may be either a mispelling, with the two alifs omitted, or a dialectical variant. This is not the only barbarism of the date inscription. The number three is clearly written on the obverse tālit, with two points over the first and last letters. In standard Arabic, these letters should be

tha' with a triangle of three points over each, but spoken Arabic com- monly changes the difficult th sound to /, a pronounciation no doubt represented here. Furthermore, tālit or thālith is not literally "three," but rather "third." On the reverse, the word is even more distorted, ap- pearing as tāt with the lām omitted. In sum, the date legend is to be read literally "year third year and a thousand," a construction as barbarous in Arabic as in English.

The honorific on the obverse may be translated "The lord of help to victory and help to good fortune, who makes the jihād a duty, the Sultan Muhammad son of the Sultan Murād." Note again the rhyme of is'ād , jihād , and Murād.

AHMAD I, 1012-26/1603-17

A Tilimsān coin of Ahmad I was published a century and a half ago, but it has until now not been recognized as such. It was described by Möller in 1831, with the attribution "Africani incerti." Soon afterward, Soret suggested its attribution to an unknown Sharif of Morocco.8 Möller's reading of the legends is quite inaccurate, but his transcription of the reverse field inscription is sufficient to identify the coin as an Ottoman Tilimsān issue, and it is unlikely that he was wrong in reading the name Ahmad b. al-Sultān Muhammad on the obverse. The attribution to Ahmad I is in any case confirmed by the recent discovery of a second Tilimsān coin of Ahmad, which also enables the correct decipher- ment of Möller's transcription of the inscriptions of his coin.

8 Möller (above, n. 7), p. 54, no. 567; Soret, RBN 1856, p. 172.



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Ottoman Coinage of Tilimsãn 213

8. Date illegible. Obv. : Rev. :

-LjJI ¿JJU

I ^ ļ* ^ .3 (?) Jj| -Olä. ïjljjUJIj

I I

Ju^ jlkLJI Margin: effaced. Margin: effaced. Möller, p. 54, no. 567 = Soret, RBN 1856, p. 172.

The inscriptions are given here as transcribed by Möller, but with the help of the coin to be described next, there is little difficulty in recon- structing the actual text. The reverse field is easily recognizable as the standard reverse of Ahmad's predecessors. The reading al-maghrāba for al-'iraqayn was usual in descriptions of Tilimsãn coins until it was

corrected by Lane-Poole. For the first two lines of the obverse, see the reverse of the coin next to be described. The third line, transliterated "Abu'1-âtas (?)" by Möller, is a surprise. Soreťs suggestion Abu'l- Fāris is still unsatisfactory. Neither of these was Ahmad's kunya , and indeed the Ottoman Sultans never used their kunyas on coins (although Maghribī rulers often did). One must assume that the word on the third line was al-sultān, but perhaps so mangled by the die engraver as to make it incomprehensible to Möller. 9. 1012 H.?

Obv. : Rev. :

Ù UaJuJI j»,n :,) I (JjjJI {ji I I

Margin: Margin: I I I * * ' I f ^ I I ui-H I I • • • I ļ»U ļ

Album collection; 2.068 g, 26 mm; Plate 32, 9.9 9 I am grateful to Stephen Album for allowing me to study and publish this coin.



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The engraving of this coin, the latest of the series, is worse than any so far described. In particular, the marginal legends must be mostly in- ferred rather than read. eÄm and alf are perhaps clear enough, at least in the light of the coins previously described; it may be presumed that the rest of the date was ithnā f ashr , assuming the coin to bear the date of Ahmad's accession. The obverse field inscription presents no difficulty. The reverse inscription corresponds to the first two lines of the obverse

field inscription on Möller's coin. The second word, following sāhib , is easily read as al-radl ; Molleťs reading al-'abd is an error common to all early nineteenth-century descriptions of Tilimsān coins. The third word is more problematic. Möller's reading al-nafar is understandable from the ductus of the letters, but impossible in meaning. A nafar is a person, individual, in a very mundane abstract sense. For example, in modern military usage, it means simply "a soldier" or even specifically "a private," the lowest military rank. Besides, the absence of the con- junction wāw, "and," after al-' adi indicates that the following word must

be an adjective describing al-eadl , not a substantive noun. One may rather suggest al-nadir, "brilliant, radiant," an adjective related to the noun al-nadr that appears on the first coin described above. Nadr means "pure gold or silver," but only because these metals are brilliant and shining. The fourth word, al-murayyad9 "assured, confirmed," is obvious. The title in full may therefore be translated "Lord of radiant assured justice." Note, finally, that there is once again a triple rhyme, al-mďayyad , Ahmad , Muhammad .



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Plate 32

Ottoman Coinage of Tilimsān

the ottoman coinage of tilimsan / michael l. bates

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