2020-10-14 Wed

Today on this day in 996, Al Aziz Billah, the fifth Caliph of the Fatimid Dynasty died. He ruled the kingdom from 975 to 996 AD. Under his reign, the Fatimid Empire stretched as far as Palestine and Syria even Mecca and Medina also accepted the suzerainty of the Fatimids.

The Egyptian economy was also nurtured, and tax revenue thereby increased, through the expansion of streets and canals and the establishment of a stable currency. The general economic well-being was also apparent in an elaborate building programme. Towards the end of his reign, Al-Aziz sought to expand his power to northern Syria, focusing his attention on the Hamdanids of Aleppo.

He issued gold Dinar and silver Dirham. These coins were struck at various mints such as Al Mahdiya, Al Mansuriya, Filastin, and Misr. The inscription on his coins arranged in double concentric circles on both obverse and the reverse.

Depicted above gold Dinar was issued in his reign from Palestine mint. The obverse of a coin has legend ‘la ilah illa Allah Muhammad rasul Allah ‘ali khayr safwat Allah’ within the inner margin and ‘Muhammad rasul Allah arsalahu bi’l-Huda wa din al-haqq li-yuzhirahu ‘ala al-din kullihi wa law kariha al-mushrikun’ bore in outer margin.

The reverse of a coin has lettering ‘abd Allah wa waliyuhu Nizar al-Aziz billah amir al-mu’minin’ within the inner circle while outer margin is depicted with ‘bism Allah duriba hadha’l-dinar bi al mansuriya’ with the date.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org