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TYRANT COLLECTION
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311
Qara Qoyunlu
Silver Tanka (4.62g), No Date
Qara Iskandar, Qara Qoyunlu Bey in Azerbaijan, AH 823-841/AD 1420-1438
A 2492 on 2470. Fine.
No mint,
man iltaja’a illa al-haqq naja
, “he who takes refuge in the Truth (God) is saved”, in a plain
rectangle countermarked on silver tanka (4.62gm) of the Shirvanshah Khalil Allah I (1518-1466). This
countermark was applied to coins seized during Iskandar’s campaign against the Shivanshah in 833/
1430. Shirvan was a mountain kingdom in what is today the Republic of Azerbaijan, west of the Caspian
Sea.
312
Qara Qoyunlu
Silver Heavy Tanka (8.56g), AH 837
temp. Aspan, Qara Qoyunlu Bey in Baghdad, AH 837-844/AD 1434-1440
Cf. SICA-9, 377ff; A 2486. Very Fine.
Baghdad mint. Anonymous inscription naming Shi’ite imams al-Hasan (b. ‘Ali) and al-Husayn (b. ‘Ali)
as
sibtan rassul Allah
(“grandsons of the apostle of Allah”), mint below; Reverse, within looped double
pentalobe, Kalima, date in margin segments. Though some have identified the date on this coin as 841,
it seems to be in fact a blundered version of the expected date 837. Very rare.