2019-05-10 Fri

Today on this day in 955, Al Aziz Billah, the fifth Caliph of the Fatimid Dynasty was born. Under his reign, the Fatimid Empire stretched as far as Palestine and Syria even Mecca and Medina also accepted the suzerainty of the Fatimids. Towards the end of his reign, Al-Aziz sought to expand his power to northern Syria, focusing his attention on the Hamdanids of Aleppo. During the reign, 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 Al-Mansuriya 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 inner circle while outer margin is depicted with ‘bism allah duriba hadha’l-dinar bi al mansuriya’ with date.

Image Source: Heritage Auctions