Watch List notes:

ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Kayfa & Amid). Qutb al-Din Sukman II, AH 581-597 / AD 1185-1200. Dirham (Bronze, 29 mm, 11.01 g, 2 h), AH 584 = 1188/9. Two diademed Roman style busts in profile, back to back, appearing to emerge from a single body; between heads, date in Kufic. Rev. In inner field and aroind, 'al-Malik al-'adil Qutb / al-Din Sukman ibn / Muhammad ibn Qararslan / ibn Artuq Mu'in al-Ima/m al-Nasir li-din Allah / al-Malik al-Nasir / Yusuf ibn Ayyub'; all in Kufic. Spengler & Sayles 13. Rare and very attractive for this issue, with a superb obverse. Good very fine.


The heads on the obverse of this issue were copied from the Roman asses of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) from Nemausus (Nîmes in France), showing the emperor himself and his friend and general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa († 12 BC) - quite a distance in time and geography!