ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Mardin). Husam al-Din Timurtash. AH 516-547 / AD 1122-1152. Dated AH 54[3(?)] (AD 1147/8). Diademed, draped, and cuirassed late Roman-style bust right, wearing beard; mint formula and AH date in outer margin / Name, titles, and genealogy of Husam al-Din Timurtash in three lines; name and titles of Husam al-Din Timurtash and his support for the Abbasid caliph in outer margin. 26.5mm, 5.63 grams. Mardin mint. Whelan –; S&S Type 25; Album 1826.2. 

The medieval figural copper coins of the Artuqids, Zangids, and other contemporary Islamic dynasties are among the most remarkable and unusual issues in Islamic numismatics. Their designs frequently borrowed from ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Persian coinage, reproducing classical busts, imperial portraits, mythological figures, astrological symbols and even the bust of Christ alongside Arabic inscriptions naming Muslim rulers and their titles. This extraordinary fusion of classical imagery and Islamic epigraphy produced a distinctive and often strikingly beautiful coinage, virtually unparalleled in the medieval Islamic world.