The Silver Currency of Mongol Iran

Abstract

The first impressions conveyed by late Mongol silver coinage are of abundance and high quality 1). The silver pieces struck by the Ilkhns Gh~zin, QJlj ytii, and especially Abii Sa'id between 1296 and 1336 A.D. are found in large numbers displayed in the major numismatic collections of the world, stacked by the bag in the store rooms of Middle Eastern museums, and offered for sale in the bazaars of Istanbul, Tehran and Baghdad. They come in from Diyarbekir and those parts by the hundreds, an Istanbul dealer told me recently. And the most common of these abundant coins-the later issues of Aba Sa'idinclude some of the finest produced in the Islamic world, masterpieces of calligraphic engraving that stamp the Islamic numismatic messagethe name and titles of the ruler, the mint and date, and the Declaration of Belief-upon the mind's eye as firmly as upon the coin. These first impressions are not mistaken. The Persian Mongols of the early fourteenth century were concerned both for the quantity and the quality of their money. Brought by conversion to Islam from alien incomprehension of, and nomadic contempt for the vanquished civilization into communion with their Persian ministers and concern