Islamic Africa, Kilwa Coins - Looking for some help

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by FitzNigel, Mar 4, 2017.

  1. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

    Hello all - I contemplated resurrecting a threat @Ardatirion started 6 years ago regarding some coins from Kilwa, but thought it might be best to start my own thread. I recently acquired these three coins which I think might have been minted under the direction of sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulayman of Kilwa, but I cannot read Arabic and wanted to know if anyone might have an idea what they say. I've been reading some of the articles I've been able to find online (like Walker's "History and Coinage of the Sultans of Kilwa"), but I find my ability to attribute them can only go so far without being able to read the texts. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks guys!

    (apologies for some of the photos being fuzzy - my camera has forgotten how to focus... Going to need to put coin budget aside for a new camera now...)

    19b-Kil-1310-al-Hasan ibn Sulayman-Fal-XVII.jpg
    19b 02.jpg
    19b 03.jpg
     
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  3. Ardatirion

    Ardatirion Où est mon poisson

    Thanks for tagging me in this! I can't read them either. I usually just match them to the specimens in SICA 10. It looks like we got these from the same source, and I'm pretty sure I picked one of each variety that the seller had, so each of them should be either 'Ali bin al-Hasan, Suleyman bin al-Hasan, or al-Hasan bin Sulayman. There are other varieties, but you can at least compare them to the three I have in my gallery:

    http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=2050
     
  4. 7Calbrey

    7Calbrey Well-Known Member

    To the left side of the first coin, I can read " AL Hassan " on the first line, and " Suleiman " on the second line. Sorry that's all I can do now.
     
  5. chrsmat71

    chrsmat71 I LIKE TURTLES!

    So these guys are part of the roots of Swahili culture, I wasn't familiar with the Kilwa guys at all...pretty interesting stuff.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilwa_Sultanate

    These guy were pretty far down the African coast, not where I thought they were either.
     
  6. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

    Thanks for the help guys - and for the reference Ard! I'll keep looking and do a write-up eventually. Kilwa is fascinating for the central role they played in world trade, and I was only made aware that they issued coins maybe a month ago... and then surprised all to heck I found some! I was hoping to find one of the issues of al-Hasan ibn Sulayman that had a star in the field, as it seems that is a pretty good indicator. But, these one will do if I could just get a full record of the legends...
     
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