I've been trying to teach myself to identify Islamic coins. Here are the first fruits of my labor. The designs on some of these are rather intricate. Not my favorite, since they all pretty much say the same thing. But still fun to collect. Al-‘Aziz Muhammed Ayyubids of Aleppo AE fals – 629-634 AH 1231-1236 AD Balog 722 Mahmud II Ottoman Empire AR 20 para – 1223 AH 1808 AD Anonymous Muwahhids of N. Africa & Spain AR dirhem – Fez mint 524-640 AH, 1129-1242 AD
Nice coins, and they can be a challenge to attribute. Aleppo (Haleb) has turned out some very interesting fals and dirhams, especially during the Artuqid and Zengid dynasties, many are quite artistic with plenty of unusual iconography. Your Ottoman coin was minted in Constantinople, and the year AH 1223 visible at the bottom of the reverse is the ascension year of Mahmud II. I can't quite see the actual year the coin was minted (probably at the top of the revserve). It would be somewhere between AH 1223 and AH 1255, and is represented by a number that must be added to 1223 to get the date struck.
