26 Centuries of Gold
886 TULUNID Dinar

Obverse:

Enlarge

Reverse:

Enlarge

Coin Details

Origin/Country: ISLAMIC DYNASTIES AH 272 / AD 885-886
Item Description: DINAR (AH270-282) Tulunid KHUMARAWAYH B. AHMAD
Full Grade: NGC MS 64
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:

Abu 'l-Jaysh Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn (Arabic: أبو الجيش خمارويه بن أحمد بن طولون‎; 864 – 18 January 896) was a son of the founder of the Tulunid dynasty, Ahmad ibn Tulun. His father, the autonomous ruler of Egypt and Syria, designated him as his successor. See the previous coin, struck a year earlier in Yemen by the Abbasid caliph. It is a full gram lighter (more than 25%). This coin weighs 4.00 grams, although not noted anywhere. I bought it raw from a Stacks auction and weighed it before sending it to NGC.

A more beat-up example of this same coinage from the same AH 272 / AD 885-886 date is featured on the Wikipedia page for this ruler. NGC has graded one other of these, at MS61.

When Ibn Tulun died in May 884, Khumarawayh succeeded him. After defeating an attempt to depose him, in 886 he managed to gain recognition of his rule over Egypt and Syria as a hereditary governor from the Abbasid Caliphate. In 893 the agreement was renewed with the new Abbasid Caliph, al-Mu'tadid, and sealed with the marriage of his daughter Qatr al-Nada to the Caliph.

At the height of his power, Khumarawayh's authority expanded from the Byzantine frontier in Cilicia and the Jazira to Nubia. Domestically, his reign was marked by a prodigal squandering of funds on extravagant displays of wealth, construction of palaces, and the patronage of artists and poets (all of whom probably got handfuls of these coins).

In combination with the need to maintain a sizeable professional army and guarantee its loyalty through rich gifts (like this coin), this emptied the treasury by the end of his reign. Khumarawayh was murdered by a palace servant in 896, and was succeeded by his son Jaysh, who was deposed after a few months in favour of another son, Harun ibn Khumarawayh (see the next coin in this set). The Tulunid state entered a period of turmoil and weakness, which culminated in its reconquest by the Abbasids in 904–905.

To follow or send a message to this user,
please log in