Bahri Mamluks. AE fals (20 mm). Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari, aka Baybars I (1260-1277 AD). Obverse: Lion (or possibly panther?) in lozenge of dots, inscription around (mostly off flan). Reverse: Inscription in six-pointed star. The word "Mamluk" means "slave", and referred to a specific type of higher-status slave trained in the military arts and permitted to carry and use weapons. The Mamluk rulers of Egypt and Syria (1250-1517) started out as slave soldiers of the Ayyubids, and eventually supplanted their masters. While the earlier Mamluks, referred to as the Bahri Mamluks (1250-1390) allowed hereditary succession like most monarchies, the later Mamluks, known as the Bujri Mamluks (1382-1517) stayed true to their roots and chose each ruler anew from their slave-origin military caste. Baybars was of Turkic origins, born in the Cuman-Kipchak confederation between the Volga and Ural Rivers, probably in 1223 (though some sources give 1228). He was captured by Bulgarians and sold into slavery in the Sultanate of Rum in 1242, and in 1247 ended up in the service of As-Salih Ayyub, the Sultan of Egypt. In 1250 he was a commander of Mamluk troops against Louis IX of France in the Seventh Crusade, and was present at the Battle of Fariskur where Louis IX was captured. Shortly afterwards, Baybars was part of a group of Mamluks who killed Sultan Turanshah (son of As-Salih Ayyub), leaving his widow Shajar al-Durr as the reigning Sultana. She soon married a Mamluk named Aybak, which is considered the end of the Ayyubids in Egypt and the start of the Bahri Mamluks. In 1260, Baybars was still a military commander when he defeated the Ilkhan (Mongols in Iran) leader Hulagu at the Battle of Ain Jalut (in what is now northern Israel), which was the turning point in stopping the Mongol advance through the Muslim world. Mamluk sultan Qunduz was assassinated, supposedly in a plot by Baybars who was upset that he did not receive the governorship of Aleppo as a reward for his success. Baybars claimed the Sultanate of Egypt, and after defeating another claimant allowed some minor surviving Ayyubids who had helped fight off the Mongols to continue in their small realms, in exchange for recognizing him as Sultan. He also tried to shore up his legitimacy by sheltering the surviving heir to the Abbasid Caliphate. Though the Caliphate had long ceased to have real political power of its own, it continued as an important symbol of Muslim legitimacy, and the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258 threatened to end this link to the very origins of Muslim society. While this heir was killed in 1261 in a ludicrously poorly planned attempt to retake Baghdad (he brought just a few hundred horseman), another surviving Abbasid was duly proclaimed Caliph, and in turn confirmed Baybars as Sultan. The remainder of Baybars' reign saw further fighting against both Crusaders and Mongols, as well as a successful campaign to conquer the Nubian Christian kingdom of Makuria. Baybars died in 1277 in Damascus, though the circumstances are unclear. He may have been poisoned, he may have died as a result of a wound sustained in recent fighting against the Mongols, or possibly even died of natural causes. He was succeeded by one of his sons, al-Said Barakah. I like the history behind this coin- you have to have some respect for a man who defeated both Crusaders and Mongols- as well as its pictorial type, which is always interesting to see in Islamic coinage. This type is usually described as a lion, and while it does resemble a lion, I can't help suspecting it may have been intended as a panther. Baybars' name means "noble panther", and who could resist making a visual pun on his own name? Baybars also created a charitable endowment for a cat garden in Cairo. The man was into felines, is what I'm saying. Please post your coins of Baybars, or other related coins, or anything that would let me make another terrible Britney Spears pun.
Wonderful write-up, @Parthicus ! And I am going to call it a Lion on your cool coin... Over 40 years ago, I had one elective course during University that covered this period. Unfortunately, the prof was one of my worst, most dry, and one of the most boring profs that I had. The other poor quality prof was a Statistics prof that seemed to travel from one Big 10 school to the next every 2 years... ugh! However, I do remember the Mamluks pretty well. Here are a couple coins from around the time of yours... Egypt Mamluk Qalaun 1279-1290 CE AR Dirham Dianeshq AYYUBID Caliphate - Saladin al-Nasir Salah al Din Yusuf AH564-589 1169-1193 CE AR Dirham RARE mint (This guy took Jerusalem back from the Europeans).
Thanks for the splendid write–up, @Parthicus ! The thread title "hit me Baybars" is quite fitting, considering that among people focussing on Western medieval history, Baybars is often known mostly for one specific attempted hit, namely for orchestrating an almost successful assassination attempt on the future king Edward I of England during the Ninth Crusade in 1272. The chronicle of the anonymous "Templar of Tyre" reports that Baybars sent a double agent with a poisoned dagger to murder Edward. Claiming to have crucial information, the assassin was received by Edward in his bedchamber but botched the job: "The Saracen met Edward and stabbed him on the hip with a dagger, making a deep, dangerous wound. The Lord Edward felt himself struck, and he struck the Saracen a blow with his fist, on the temple, which knocked him senseless to the ground for a moment. The the Lord Edward caught up a dagger from the table which was in the chamber, and stabbed the Saracen in the head and killed him." According to the chronicle, the future queen Eleanor of Castile sucked the poison out of Edward's wound, saving the prince's life. It's safe to say that if Baybars' plan had suceeded, English history would have unfolded much differently. Here is a well-researched article on the 1272 assassination attempt and its background. I'd like to bump this quality thread with a coin, but all I have from the Mamluk Sultanate is this extremely crude fals struck during the de facto interregnum following the death of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad in 1341. Mamluk Sultanate, anonymous issue, AE fals, 1341–1343 AD (741-743AH), Hamah mint. Obv: double circular line, connected with spokes within border of dots; ضرب (=duriba/struck) in center. Rev: hexagram in circle; بحماة (=bi-Hamah) in center. 20mm, 2.37g. Ref: Album 931H.
Thanks, that is a great write-up, Parthicus! I always tried to collect early islamic coins with animals. And here are my Qarakhanid felines, well - the cheetahs, that is. There are different types, all as effective as they are primitive. AE fals Qarakhanids. Yusuf bin Abd Allah. Shash (= around Tashkent) 396 AH = 1006 AD. Obv. Cheetah with stripes and curly tail walks to the right. 22 mm. 1.47 gr. Album 3306A (version with cat; there's also a 3306A version with a circle in a square, that looks much like a washing machine). AE fals Qarakhanids, Yusuf bin Abd Allah, Shash 396 AH = 1006 AD. Obv. Cheetah turning its head back to look at you. 21 mm, 1.33 gr. Kochnev 180. Cannito-Fedorov 20 (cheetah). AE fals Qarakhanids, Yusuf bin Abd Allah, Shash 396 AH = 1006 AD. Obv. Cheetah turning its head back to look at you. 21.5 mm. 1.96 gr. Cannito-Fedorov 20? (cheetah). For completeness sake, here is the washing machine variety. AE fals Qarakhanids. Yusuf bin Abd Allah (394-396). Shash 395 AH = 1005 AD. 23 mm. 1.58 gr. Album 3306A (version without cat).
And in a thread like this, the Sunrise Cat should not be missed. The famous Rum-Seljuq silver lion-and-sun dirham of Kaikhusraw III (1236-1245). Obv. Lion with rising sun. Three stars in the field. Rev. Mint Konya. Year 639H =1241/2. 22 mm, 2.88 gr. Album 1218. Izmirlier 403-405. During the reign of Kaikhusraw III Baybars was sold as a slave, as we have seen in the OP.
We might point out that the 'scientific' name of the lion is Panthera leo and the lion is known as King of the Beasts so showing a lion as the 'noble panther' is not at all a stretch. Translations from languages we do not know fluently always carry the risk of our not seeing things the same way they did in that culture, at that time and in the mind of one die cutter.
Excellent write up, thanks. I know so little of this era of history that I hadn't equated the Mamluk servants of the great Harun al-Rashid that I regularly encountered in my studies of the 1001 Nights, with the Mamluk empire I battled so hard against in a recent campaign in Europa Universalis 4 (a grand strategy computer game) while playing as the Ottomans.
Thanks for the kind comments and neat coins, everyone. That great Qarakhanid type with cheetah is new to me, I don't recall ever seeing that design. Re: lion versus panther, I admit that my theory about the identity of the feline on the OP coin is just guesswork, and I'm not prepared to defend it in any very rigorous way. Identifying the precise species intended on coins from centuries ago can be tricky, especially if the artwork is not highly detailed or if many related species look similar. As for the story about Baybars' attempted assassination of the future Edward I, unfortunately I have to make hard choices on what to leave out of my write-ups, and sometimes I just don't have room for a juicy story. For some of the poorly-understood coinages I like, this isn't a problem since we have so few solid facts. But for well-documented historical figures, I have to leave out lots of interesting details. I'm posting a coin later today, whose subject has numerous full-length biographies devoted to him, and there's no way I can fit in everything.
