Featured 800 years ago: The Mongols are coming!

Yes – that is surely part of the story but I think there is more to it than that.

Muhammad Khwarezm struck a lot of coins of a lot of types – seems to me the most diverse coinage of one ruler I ever saw. Especially important the star dirhem types copying types far to the West, and the base gold dinars copying fabrics far to the East. I long believed part of his economic policy was one of selling licenses to coin to foreign merchant guilds or some such.

Further – we know from letters found in a cave that he was involved in complex financial chicanery – buying up bullion coinage using fiat billon jitals it seems – under force of law.

I feel this is probably important in understanding the big historical picture. Toynbee would have I think very accurately explained Muhammed’s fall as being due to two problems – one was the “external proletariat” - the Mongols. But just as important was his problem with the “internal proletariat” - his own citizens. And it seems likely that was in turn linked to his financial/tax dealings with them.

If I remember it correctly his tax collectors in one city were rounded up and killed by a mob. They then butchered them and hung them in the meat market in parts.

That sounds like poor popularity ratings to me.

We read this ancient Chinese advice to emperors in the Guanzi:

“Your majesty cannot expect men with broken hearts to fight for you”

Muhammed seems to have figured that out too late, and had to do a runner when Genghis came at him.

Meanwhile – trying to get into the Mongol mind set – the text of the letter from the attack on Vienna (was that Ogedai?) still exists. The great Khan’s idea was that since God had already granted him the earth, it follows any opposition was heresy.

Tough to argue with that

Rob

 

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Reviving this thread with a coin of Uzbek Khan, counter-marked "khan" after his death - a worn little coin of 0.95g from this interesting period.

Juchid, ca. 650-886, Black Sea region, Qrim mint, Uzbek Khan (Sultan Giyas al-Din Mohammed Öz Beg) AH712-741 (AD 1312-1341), AR dirham, AH720 (frozen date).

Stephen Album suggests that this might have been countermarked by ‘Abd Allah Khan, who ruled 762-771, with the caveat that this remains theoretical and unproven. These coins may have been issued for as many as 30-40 years with a fixed date. (Ref: Album A-2025G, host coin Zeno #166658)

 

An Astoundingly great thread; thanks to @Orielensis for your amazing initial post, and @Sulla80 for reviving it (...only way I'd ever have stumbled onto it), and everyone else's commensurately erudite contributions. Just, Wow.
Peter Jeckson has written and edited (primary sources) extensively on the Crusade era. He's one of the best in the field.
...But you guys are Too Much. :<}
...Oh, Right. Yes, Feature this thread!!!

 

I'm glad to see this thread revived with such an interesting coin, @Sulla80 ! My own example, posted above, has the "khan" countermark on both sides. There isn't much research on these that I'm aware of (@EWC3, who is a specialist in Eastern medieval coins, might know more), but the frequent countermarks on quite worn coins of this type imply that the Golden Hoard at some point simply "reapproved" old coins instead of minting new ones.

This also gives me the chance to post another Mongol-related acquisition that I made since I posted this thread. The Turkic Qarlughids established a short-lived principality (c. 1238–1266 AD) in and around Ghazni, which today is in eastern Afghanistan. The dynasty developed in the power vacuum left by the Mongol invasion of central Asia. For some time, the Qarlughids became a sort of independent buffer state between the Mongols and the Delhi Sultanate. Eventually, they were annexed by their neighbors, though. Qarlughid coins aren't rare, which attests to the wealth they accumulated as trade intermediaries between the two large empires:


Qarlughids, under Nasir al-Din Muhammad Qarlugh, AE/BI jital, 1249–1259 AD, unknown mint. Obv: Arabic legend "nasir al-dunya wa ud-din," horse r. Rev: Nagari legend "sri maha/mada ka/raluka". 16mm, 3,61g. Tye 347; Album 1819; G&G SS14.

 

Thanks for the comment - I am curious to know if there is any evidence of minting with "fixed date", or if these were only circulating and reauthorized.

An excellent thread - I will add one more dirham which I found interesting for the link to the ruler, Jani Beg (son of Öz Beg/Uzbek), and the year of his siege of Genoese city of Caffa (today: Feodosija, Ukraine) in AD 1343 and the spread of the Black plague to Europe. An account from Gabriele De Mussi (written circa AD 1348/9) describes the the Tartar's use of dead bodies as a weapon and the spread of disease - an interesting article here at cdc.gov and an excellent post from @FitzNigel, Medieval - Caffa and the Black Death

Golden Horde, Jani Beg, 1341-1357, AR dirham (1.54g), struck only at Saray al-Jadida (“New Saray”), AH743 (AD 1342/3), ruler's name in Uighur together with his titles in Arabic
Obv: Sultan, the Just, Jani Beg, Jalal al-din Mahmud
خلد الله ملكه [...] السلطان العادل
Rev: minted in Saray al-Jadida 743
ضرب سراي الجديد في سنة ٧۴۳
Ref: Sagdeeva 217, Album A-2027

 

This type is the most common type for the Crimean dangs and the "frozen date" was assumed based on the enormous amount of such coins found and the fact that no Crimean coins of Öz Beg khan were minted despite he ruled 20 years more and there were also no dated silver coins minted in Crimea until the year 777...

Also the early coin complexes found in Crimea contain all the coins without countermarks while later complexes contain mostly countermarked coins...

Will try to add a photo of my coin from the year 720 below

 

A thread I keep returning to...and coins in this period:

Islamic, Persia (Post-Seljuk), Khwarizm Shahs, time of Ala al-Din Muhammad II, AD 1200-1221, Æ Jital (13mm, 2.47g) , Kurzuwan mint
Obv: "Kurzuwan" in circle, legend around "as-sultan al-azam muhammad bin as-sultan"
Rev: Kalima
Ref: Tye 246