Watch List notes:

‡ FATIMID, AL-MU'IZZ (341-365h), Dinar, Makka 363h. Weight: 4.19g Reference: Nicol 385, citing a single example known only from 'notes taken in 1979...present whereabouts unknown.'. Small area of weak striking in margin, otherwise almost extremely fine and excessively rare. THE FIRST FATIMID DINAR STRUCK IN THE HOLY CITY OF MAKKA, During the 3rd/9th century, the Abbasid caliphs were responsible for ensuring that Makka itself was secure and that both trade and pilgrimage routes in the region were safe. As the power of the caliphs dwindled under al-Muqtadir and his successors, this role was increasingly assumed by local sharifs from the early 4th/10th century onwards. The chief threat to Makka during this period came from the Qarmatids, a radical Isma'ili sect with its origins in Eastern Arabia. In 317h they attacked Makka itself, killing many people and carrying off the Black Stone. It was only after the Fatimids arranged to pay 50,000 dinars to the Qarmatids that the Stone was returned in 339h, and one contemporary writer records that it had been broken in two so that silver bars were used to repair it. The sharifs who governed Makka can hardly have been well-disposed towards the Qarmatids, who also had a bad reputation for attacking pilgrims – which was not only impious but also affected the commercial wellbeing of the city. But they seem to have had little choice but to cooperate with them to a certain extent, and for the first half of the fourth century it seems that an awkward but pragmatic relationship developed between Qarmatids and sharifs. Virtually no coins were struck at Makka during the first half of the 4th/10th century. Production of standard Abbasid dinars and dirhams seems to have ceased circa 302h, after which undated silver sudaysis were struck there by the Rassid al-Nasir Ahmad b. Yahya (301-325h). Thereafter we have a lacuna of some thirty years until 354h, when a dinar was struck there acknowledging the Abbasid caliph al-Muti' and also bearing the single letter kaf, in reference to Kafur, the Ikhshidid ruler in Egypt. It is not clear who issued this coin: it might conceivably have been produced anonymously by one of the sharifs, but the piece has obvious similarities with contemporary dinars issued by the amirs of 'Athar from the late 330s until the early 350s. The link to Kafur is confirmed by the existence of a dinar struck at Makka three years later, in 357h, on which Kafur's name is given in full. Whoever struck these coins evidently felt Kafur and the Ikhshidids were the most important power in the region at that time. The arrival of the Fatimids in the region changed this uneasy balance of power. Following the death of Kafur in 357h the Ikhshidid succession was disputed between Ahmad, the eleven-year-old son of 'Ali b. al-Ikhshid, and the ambitious general al-Hasan b. 'Ubaydallah. Meanwhile, Egypt was also struggling with economic and agricultural problems caused by poor Nile floods which sparked social unrest. The Fatimids took advantage of these difficulties by sending an army under Jawhar which successfully captured Egypt in 358h, whereupon they briefly concluded a peace treaty with the Qarmatids. For several years afterwards Fatimid armies struggled to seize control of Syria and Palestine; their opponents were the Qarmatids, supported variously by the remnants of the Ikhshidids, the 'Uqaylids, the Buwayhids, and financially by the Hamdanids, all of whom had their reasons for wanting the Fatimids driven out of the region. Although the Fatimids already had a strong presence in the area and the sharifs of Makka had originally accepted Fatimid authority, the Qarmatids seem to have been able to drive out the pro-Fatimid element and establish themselves in Makka by 359h. Surviving dinars indicate that they continued to control the city as late as 362h, but they suffered a serious blow when the Fatimids defeated a Qarmatid army near Cairo in the following year. This defeat was clearly a major blow given that virtually no Qarmatid coins were struck in the region during the year 363h, while the Fatimids were able to issue both gold and silver coins in Palestine during this year. It is tempting to suggest that this Qarmatid defeat also weakened their position in Makka. Our sources confirm that al-Mu'izz's name was acknowledged in the khutba in both Makka and Madina in 363h and 364h, and it is entirely appropriate that Fatimid coins should also have been produced there in these two years. This beautifully engraved and excessively rare dinar remains a tangible expression of Fatimid sovereignty there.
(40000-50000 GBP)