@FitzNigel, along with other justly esteemed members of the forum, has recently posted a typically erudite and illuminating article and thread on this very issue, and its context: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/medieval-africa-the-kilwa-coins-of-sultan-al-Ḥasan-ibn-sulaymān-in-their-historical-context.361280/#post-7466420 But since this example was very kindly offered to me by @AnYangMan, it seemed appropriate to post it as a separate thread, in tribute to his no less remarkable combination of expertise and magnanimity. ...I would’ve taken too long to find a (probably much) worse example. Sultanate of Kilwa. al-Hasan b. al-Sulayman, c. 715 AH /1315 CE. AE fals. Album 1183. (Of which I only have the second edition in print; @AnYangMan alerted me to the fact that Steve Album has made the third edition available for free download from his website.) I really need to quote @AnYangMan’s remarkably thorough, erudite and insightful description and commentary (and this is leaving out his remarks on the unusual double borders): “The inscription is quite neat. Nothing overly fancy or long lists of titles, but clear and to the point. And what is also fascinating is that the name of the Sultan (in this case Al-Hasan Bin Sulayman) rhymes with the name/epithet given to Allah on the reverse. On this coin it is (R-L): الحسن بن Al-Hasan Ibn (Al-Hasan, son of) سليمان Sulayman (Sulayman) عز نصره Azza Nasra (may his victory increase, this last line is a bit skewed) “And on the rev in three lines (there is a four line variety as well): يثق Yathiq (trusts) بالواحد Bi’l-Wahid (In the One) المنان Al-Mannan (the bountiful) “The modern Arabic of course doesn't match the Medieval calligraphy perfectly, but I think you can see whats going on when you put the coin and these next to eachother! “You can also see how the name of the Sultan rhymes with the title of Allah given: Sulayman – Mannan. On different coins of different rulers, this still holds true, each time a different one of the many names of god in the Islamic tradition is given. On coins of Al-Husayn Ibn Ahmad for example he is called ‘The eternal’ (Samad), etc. And they say Islamic coinage is boring just because it doesn’t have any imagery!” Between @FitzNigel’s article, and @AnYangMan ’s commensurate erudition, there’s only this to contribute. (Unless otherwise noted, from Wikipedia. --Except, from articles that at least cite references.) Thanks, @FitzNigel, for pointing out that, for this part of the world, the Arab slave trade was largely curtailed as early as the later Abbasid caliphate (9th c. CE). I have to like how, for Kilwa itself, resumption of this on any scale had to wait until the Portuguese conquest in the 16th century. Here’s one part of the interior of the extension of the Great Mosque of Kilwa, attributed in part to al-Hasan --although earlier extensions are dated to the 12th c. CE. (From Wikimedia Commons.) I like how the arches are subtly pointed, echoing the Islamic influence on Gothic architecture from the 12th century. Here’s a cool article on the mosque: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Kilwa_Kisiwani Apart from that, al-Hasan was a contemporary of Mansa Musa of the empire of Ghana, at the opposite end of, thank you, a large continent. Both made the hajj (/pilgrimage) to Mecca in the early 14th c. CE, and both were known for their generosity. --Mansa Musa’s had a dramatic effect on the Egyptian economy, causing widespread deflation --for one, a dramatic drop in the price of slaves. (From a Catalan map, c. 1375; Wikimedia Commons: ) Rewind a little, to the early 13th century. Western sources record a comparably arduous pilgrimage, by a king of one of the Christian Nubian kingdoms in modern Sudan. Here’s an account from Phillips, The Fourth Crusade (Viking, 2004), citing and eventually quoting Robert of Clari, a participant and chronicler. “During the crusaders’ stay in Constantinople they came across people from lands they had never previously known. One day when the nobles were visiting the emperor [Isaak III], the king of Nubia arrived at the palace. Robert of Clari reported some curiousity about his black skin -- as a northern Frenchm[a]n, he was unlikely to have met individuals from the lands below Egypt [...]. Prince Alexius [soon to be III] gave the king a full and formal welcome, as befitted a royal visitor, and introduced him to the crusader nobles. Through interpreters they learned that the king had come to Constantinople as a pilgrim. He claimed that his own lands were 100 days’ journey beyond Jerusalem and that when he started out he had 60 companions; 50 [...] had perished on the way to [Jerusalem] and now only one remained alive. After visiting Constantinople this intrepid man wanted to go to Rome, then on to Santiago di Compostela in northern Spain before returning to Jerusalem to die [...]. In all respects they were impressed with this visitor and, as Robert of Clari commented, ‘they gazed at this king with great wonder.’” (P. 192 and notes.) ...One might be tempted to suppose that European history included a phase which effectively predated racism in any ideologically formalized sense. Here’s a map of the Christian kingdoms of Nubia, from Wikimedia Commons. Ruffini, in Medieval Nubia: A Social and Eonomic History (Oxford UP, 2012), notes the pronounced uptick in conlict between Nubians and Ayyubid Egypt from the accession of Saladin in 1171, “mark[ing] the end of several centuries of reasonably peaceful relations [...]” (249). He tentatively identifies the king in Rober of Clari’s account with Moses George of Nobadia /Nobatia, who “disappears from the records [by name] in the 1190s,” but who may have “followed the example of several of his predecessors and left the throne in search of monastic, or at least pious, retirement” (251). You’re cordially invited to post anything African and/or Islamic, or whatever else is relevant. --Regarding which, You get to be judge and jury! The more expansive, the better.
I don't have much to share, but this is one of the nicest East African sultanate coins I've ever seen! Congrats on it, these are not often seen and represent a really interesting time period and peoples. To my knowledge, the various East African sultanates and Axum were the only early African minters besides Carthage, Ptolemaic Egypt, Morocco, and other Mediterranean rulers. Super cool to see such a nice example here.
Many thanks, @TuckHard. The only other ones I know of --and I've already followed the more typical 'attribution' to el-Andalus (/Muslim Spain) in this forum-- are the Almoravid issues from the northwest coast, mainly modern-day Algeria. The dynasty was Berber; for anyone who doesn't think that counts as African, watch this (from Trajan's Column, via Wikimedia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Lusius_Quietus_on_Column_of_Trajan.jpg). We got some dreadlocks up in this house.
Gorgeous example @+VGO.DVCKS! I was lucky to snag one of his predecessors from our friend too: East Africa - Kilwa Sultanate Sulaymān b. al-Ḥasan, r. 1302-1316 Kisiwani mint, AE Fals, 20.17 mm x 1.67 grams Obv.: (Sulaymān son of / al-Ḥasan / (May he be happy!)). Inscription in three lines, star in center Rev.: (trusts in the Master / of Bounties / (He is glorious!)). Inscription in three lines, star in center Ref.: SICA 10, #604, Walker IV (pg. 65) apologies for the poor phone photo. I’ll be breaking out my camera for my big backlog in a week or so. As for the coin, this was certainly one I have wanted for a while, as the star on both sides is a distinctive design only found at Kilwa
@FitzNigel, you're sending me back to the 2nd edition of Album. Did I get the reign wrong? It's starting to look like it. No idea who your references are; for now, I'm paddling with one oar. Anyway, that's a very cool example. Liking the stars.
The chronology of the sultans of Kilwa is not certain. I decided to revise the dating of my coins to follow Fleisher and Wynne-Jones’ article in their 2010 article in the Numismatic Chronicle (chart page 500):
Many thanks, @FitzNigel. ...To needlessly restate your point, for a lot of medieval (and, conspicuously, Aksumite) coins, the chronology, whether for issues or entire reigns, is ultimately reducible to informed speculation. Conspicuously in the cases of Kilwa and Aksum, the paucity or lack of extant documentary evidence is owing to sustained intervals of violence. (...Why it's so much more difficult to do genealogy from continental Europe than from England.) Sometimes hoard evidence is the best you get.
