Ilkhans, Jurjan mint. AE fals (22 mm, 2.43 g). Abu Sa'id (1316-1335 CE/716-736 AH). Obverse: Standard religious formula, with names of the first four Caliphs at cardinal points. Reverse: Humped bull at center, surrounded by legend naming ruler and mint. Album 2220. This coin: Pars Coins Auction 48, lot 252 (july 18, 2024). (note: Some reused text below.) The Ilkhans were a Mongol dynasty based mainly in Persia and extending into its immediate neighbors. The dynasty was founded by Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of both Kublai Khan and Mongke Khan. Hulagu was ordered to conquer the Abbasid caliphate, which he did in 1258, then declared himself as Ilkhan (subordinate khan). His descendants would rule for another 80 years. Abu Sa'id took the throne in 1316. Early in his reign, he defeated an invasion by the Golden Horde (another Mongol offshoot) in Azerbaijan and several simultaneous rebellions at different parts of the empire. In the 1330s, the Black Death ranged widely, and in 1335 both Abu Sa'id and his son were killed by the plague. He was succeeded by various short-lived claimants, and the Ilkhanate broke up into multiple rival states. Ilkhan coinage is quite complicated, with multiple types per ruler and over 250 different mints known. (They actually make the Sasanians look conservative in their assignment of mints.) Abu Sa'id struck many different pictorial types in his bronzes, mainly lions but also other animals and symbols. I really like how much detail is preserved in this coin on both the inscription and the bull, and the winning bid of $35 was cheerfully cheap. Please post your Ilkhan coinage, or whatever else is related.
Indeed!!! :-o I have 2 coin types from within the Ilkhanid section of Stephen Album's Checklist of Islamic Coins. Both are attributed to the ruler Arghun, AH 683-690 / AD 1284-1291. The 1st example is comparatively pedestrian for such coinage, but the 2nd below is scarce -- and more interesting. Album 2146 And my favorite... with a Christian legend and symbol... Album 2151.2 In addition to the clear Christian Cross, the inscription includes the Christian phrase: “…name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit” and adds “one God”. Per Album, the use of "...Christian legends does not imply conversions by the ruler, but rather reflects the preferences of the local population in the city where the coins were minted." (Both types above fall in the first of three divisions of Ilkhanid coinage, which is termed the "period of local coinages".)
Ilkhanate Silver 2 Dirhams of Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan (minted in Tiflis (Tbilisi) sometime between 1316 and 1335):
