Amr, if you can't read it, I don't know how much help I can be.
Stylistically, Arabic written with the little serifs on the tops like that dates from around the "Crusader period". Looking through Marsden for coins of that time period and of similar design, I came across
these copper coins of Badr al-Din Lu'lu' of Mosul under Mongol vassalage, AH 656-657 (AD 1258-1259), listed in the Album catalogue as #1876. The coin lists the titles of Lu'lu' on one side (which I think is your bottom pic?) and the Mongol overlord Mongke on the other. According to the Marsden and Album references, the Mongol titles include the Persian phrase "
padishah-e ruy-i zamin" which translates to "emperor of the face of the earth", apparently a title the Mongols picked up from the Chinese.
Some of the comments posted in the zeno.ru link above mention that these coins were often overstruck on earlier coppers, which may explain the apparent double-striking evident on both sides.
Even though Album rates it as "common", I think its still a cool coin.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 11/27/2011 07:20 am
