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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
166, Lot: 215. Estimate $100.
Sold for $117. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Persia (Post-Mongol). Timurids. Timur (Tamerlane). AH 771-807 / AD 1370-1405. Lot of four AR. With Mahmud as overlord. AR 4 Dinars (17mm, 21.3 g). Fars province, uncertain mint. Three line legend / Legend in crude hexagon. Album 2376 // AR “Dirham” (Quarter Tanka). Dated AH 791 (18mm, 1.50 g). Samarqand mint. Legend and date in square / Legend in polylobe. Album 2381 // Same, but dated AH 796 (18mm, 1.54 g) // AR Akçe (15mm, 1.20 g). Kastamonu mint. Date uncertain. Legend in hexagon / Legend in polylobe. Album 2385. Album 2385. Average VF. 4 coins in lot.


Timur built his great empire from a foundation based on tribal lands in Transoxania. He was nominally a vassel of the Chaghatayid khan, but in fact in his reign they were mere puppet rulers. Timur married a princess descended from the great Chingiz and built a glorious capital at Samarqand, adding legitimacy to his claim to power. In swift campaigns of conquest, Timur defeated the rival dynasties of the Muzaffarids and Jalayirids of Persia, the Golden Horde khans, the Delhi sultans and the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid. He died in 1405 while preparing to invade China, and his empire, divided between his sons, quickly collapsed into a welter of feuding states.

Timur never undertook to unify his realm administratively, which among other things meant that each region of the empire continuing with its own coinage standards and denominations, merely acknowledging Timur as overlord. The result is a mass of confusing coinage which still awaits a comprehensive study.