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Fatimids. al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah. AH 495-524 / AD 1101-1130. AV Dinar (22.1mm, 4.44 g, 3h). ‘Asqalan mint. Dated AH 503 (AD 1109/10). Obverse margin begins bismillah al-rahman al-rahim duriba.... Nicol 2500. EF. Extremely rare, only four specimens recorded by Nicol.
An important port city in Palestine, ‘Asqalan was was one of the last Byzantine cities in the region to fall to the victorious Muslims, being finally captured around AH 19 / AD 640 by the future Umayyad caliph, Mu’awiya b. Abi Sufyan. The Byzantines retook the city during the 60s / 680s, but ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan recaptured and refortified it a few years later. ‘Asqalan remained in Muslim hands thereafter, and the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi (AH 158-169) constructed a mosque there.
Under the Fatimids, ‘Asqalan became an important frontier city on the borders of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. As well as its military and strategic significance, ‘Asqalan acquired a particular religious significance under the Fatimids. An inscription from the time of al-Mustansir dated AH 484 recalls that the severed head of Husayn b. ‘Ali was rediscovered there by the Fatimid grand vizier, Badr al-Jamali, who accordingly constructed a new mosque and shrine for it. The minbar from this mosque is still extant, and survives today in the Sanctuary of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The head itself remained in situ until AH 548 / AD 1153/4, when it was removed to the safety of Cairo following the surrender of ‘Asqalan to the forces of King Baldwin III. The shrine itself was destroyed in 1950, but a small marble mosque was subsequently built on the site half a century later.
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