26 Centuries of Gold
1059 FATIMID Dinar al Mustansir

Obverse:

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Reverse:

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Coin Details

Origin/Country: ISLAMIC DYNASTIES
Item Description: DINAR (AH427-487) Fatimid AL-MUSTANSIR (4.17g). AH449. MISR
Full Grade: NGC MS 63
Owner: deposito

Set Details

Custom Sets: 26 Centuries of Gold
Competitive Sets: This coin is not competing in any sets.
Research: NGC Coin Price Guide
NGC World Coin Census

Owner Comments:

Abū Tamīm Ma‘ad al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh (Arabic: أبو تميم معد المستنصر بالله‎‎) was the eighth caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate from 1036 until 1094. He was one of the longest reigning Muslim rulers. Al-Mustansir was born in Cairo to Caliph Ali az-Zahir and a black slave from Nubia. So my collection is inclusive. Back off.

During his reign, Turkish mercenaries drained the treasury; many of the works of art and valuables of all sorts in the palace were sold to satisfy their demands---often they themselves were the purchasers, at merely nominal prices, and resold the articles thus gained at a profit. In one fortnight of the year 460/1068 (about 10 years after this coin), articles to the value of 30,000,000 dinars were sold off to provide pay for the Turks. Then some Turks took over Cairo outright.

Al-Mustansir lodged in rooms which had been stripped bare, waited on by only three slaves, and subsisting on two loaves which were sent him daily by the daughters of Ibn Babshand, the grammarian.

The victorious Turks dominated Cairo, held the successive viziers in subjection, treated al-Mustansir with contempt, and used their power to deplete the treasury by enhancing their pay to nearly twenty times its former figure. Nasir al-Dawla became so overbearing and tyrannical in his conduct that he provoked even his own followers, and so at length he was assassinated in 466/1074. Unfortunately, this left the city in a worse condition than ever, for it was now at the mercy of the various Turkish factions, who behaved no better than brigands. Conditions in Egypt continued to deteriorate, and unabated violence raged in the streets and countryside alike.

Sixty years? How'd this guy keep getting elected?

"Fatimid. al-Mustansir (AH 427-487 / AD 1036-1094) gold Dinar AH 449 (AD 1058/9) MS63 NGC, Misr mint, A-719A, ICV-837, SICA-691 (different date). 22mm. 4.17gm."

Kalima in inner margin around central pellet; "Ali is the most excellent of the executors and Vizier of the best of messengers" in middle margin; "Second Symbol" in outer margin / "al-Mustansir billah amir al-muminin" in inner margin around central pellet; "the Imam Ma'add bids to the unity of Allah the Everlasting" in middle margin; "Bismillah ("in the name of Allah") struck was this dinar in Misr in the year nine and forty and four hundred" in outer margin.

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