Description

Gold Mamluk Dinar in the name “Barsbey”. On the obverse figures the phrase “There is no God but Allah the one, who has no partner”, on the reverse “the King Al-Ashra[f] A[b]ou Al-Nasr Barsbay,  [May his victory be] glorified.

Mamluk Coins

Although at the beginning the Bahariyya Mamluks followed the Ayyubid monetary system, the Mamluk’s traditional style of their dinars and dirhams started to appear during the reign of Saif ad-Din Qutuz (1259 AD/657 AH – 1260 AD/658 AH). The Mamluk Thuluth script was used to inscribe texts on dinars. For instance, it was used to write the testimony that there is no God but Allah, and the Quranic verse “It is He Who hath sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion, even though the Pagans may detest it” (9:33) on the obverse. This was the first dinar to come without the name of the Abbasid Caliph after the Mangol invasion of Salam City (Bagdad) in 1258 AD/659 AH. Although Baibars declared the Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo in 1261 AD/659 AH, he did not coin the name of the caliph on the dinars, except for limited edition coins. Instead, he inscribed the Basmala phrase “In the name of Allah” as well as the place and date of coinage on the obverse. As for the reverse, it was dedicated for the name and title of the Mamluk sultan, and sometimes his emblem. For instance, the lion emblem was coined on Baibars’ coins. Inscriptions gradually disappeared from the margins due to the mints’ negligence in coining the templates. As the dirhams, the Kameli dirhams remained in use until Baibars issued new dirhams, which are almost two third silver, to be circulated in the market alongside the Kameli dirhams. Similarly, the fils continued to play a pivotal role in the Mamluk monetary system.

In addition, the end of the Bahariyya Mamluk Dynasty witnessed the appearance of the golden ducat in the Egyptian and Eastern Islamic currency market. These ducats rapidly acquired popularity, causing the Mamluk dirham to drop, especially during the Circassian Mamluk Dynasty.