ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Mardin). Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan. AH 597-637 / AD 1200-1239. Dated AH 599 (AD 1202/3). Centaur advancing right, head facing, drawing bow at head of dragon emerging from his tail; mint name and AH date around / Names and titles of Abbasid caliph al-Nasir and Ayyubid overlord in four lines; name of Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan in margins. 30mm, 8.57 grams. Mardin mint. Whelan Type II, pp. 111-2; S&S Type 38.2; Album 1830.2; ICV 1212.

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.