Struck the Year of Saladin's Death

336, Lot: 407. Estimate $100. Sold for $380. 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 (30mm, 13.79 g, 9h). Unnamed (Mardin?) mint. Dated AH 589 (AD 1193). Three standing figures around central female figure seated left in attitude of mourning / Name and titles of Abbasid caliph in three lines; name and titles of Husam al-Din Yuluq Arslan and date in outer margin. Whelan Type III, 54-6; S&S Type 35.1; Album 1829.3. Near VF, brown surfaces.

Spengler and Sayles have argued that scene 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 589).