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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dltsrq, post: 21346303, member: 75482&quot;][ATTACH=full]1542682[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s an interesting 10th-century coin from Central Asia, known as &quot;proto-Qarakhanid&quot;. The coin is a Chinese-style cash (23mm, 3.49gm) with legends in Arabic Kufic script. The exact issuer is unknown but these coins are believed to belong to one of the Turkic tribes in the region known in Russian as Semirechye (&quot;Seven Rivers&quot;) and in Chinese as Zhetysu, the lands south and east of Lake Balkhash. Stylistically, the proto-Qarakhanid pieces fit between the Chinese-style cash coins of the Turgesh Qaganate, inscribed with Sogdian legends, and the coins of the Qarakhanids, traditional post-reform Islamic issues. The first three elements of the legend, read clockwise from 12h, are interpreted by most as ملك (<i>malik</i> &quot;king&quot;) / ارام (<i>aram</i>, a personal name?) / يينال (<i>yinal</i>, a well-attested Turkic title). The last at 9 o&#039;clock is more difficult, read variously as خيغ (<i>chig</i>), قيغ (<i>qayig</i>) and قرغ (<i>qarag</i>). Despite the ambiguity, this last word does seem to be a Turkic tribal ethnonym. Indeed, the first example reported in the literature (only a few decades ago) was found in excavations of a settlement known as <i>Chigil</i> (&quot;place of the Chig&quot;, a historic Turkic tribe) near modern Taraz in Kazakhstan. The 10th-century date is based on the style of the script and is about as close as can be estimated at present. Kamyshev 49; Album 1510P; cf. Zeno 962.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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