Artuqids of Mardin. Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan. AH 597-637 / AD 1201-1239. Dated AH 611 (AD 1214/5). One with male bust facing slightly left, the other with bust facing slightly right. Citing the Ayyubid ruler al-‘Adil Abu Bakr as overlord. 24mm, 6.53 grams. NM (Mardin?). S&S 40; Album 1830.4.

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.