ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Mardin). Husam al-Din Yuluq Arslan. AH 580-597 / AD 1184-1200. Citing Ayyubid overlord al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf I (Saladin). Dated AH 582 (AD 1186/7). Diademed and draped half-length facing male bust, hand across chest; name around / Name of Ayyubid overlord in five lines within six-pointed star; partial mint formula and AH date in margins. 29mm, 12.91 grams. Whelan Type I, 50–1; S&S Type 33.3; Album 1829.1; ICV 1206

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.