Turkoman Coin Legends

Legends. (Go down to the translations.) Some sources transliterate the Arabic legends. This page translates many transliterations (below).
   Fortunately for collectors and scholars, Turkoman coins often have long Arabic legends with a great deal of information. They often 
   name the local ruler (usually with honorific titles and sometimes including a personal name. The format of names is discussed below.)
   give some of his genealogy,
   sometimes name his overlords, and
   sometimes name the Caliph at the time.
   have an explicit date (AH, of course, but we can translate to AD, table below),
   name the mint city (in the region mapped here, with cities located more precisely on this google map)

With this information scholars can often work out who was ruling where and when and subject to whom.

Of course, the legends are in Arabic, which few of us can read, but some catalogs transliterate them and this page is intended to help translate the transliterations. (If you want to learn how to read the Arabic legends on coins, see the book by Richard Plant.)

Contents of this page:  Example (next). What types of information is in legends. How rulers' names are composed. Glossary of common words and titles. Date conversion from AH to AD. References.   

On other pages: A selection of Turkoman figural coins.  ID numbers for coin types not in Spengler and Sayles.

Here is an example. This coin names the ruler by listing some of his honorific titles, names the mint city, and names his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather: 

A large coin of 32-30 mm and 11.88 grams. (Slightly larger than a US half-dollar.)
Struck in the name of 
Qutb al-Din Il-Ghazi II. He was the Artuqid ruler AD 1176-1184 in the region of Diyarbakr, a city-fortress which is the mint named on the coin.
Reference: Spengler and Sayles, Type 31.

If we translated the name we use for the ruler we would get "Stands up for the Faith, Fights against infidels."  As you can see, this is not a name like "Franklin Delano Roosevelt" that was given by his parents to him at birth. These are stylized titles taken after gaining power. Some names we use for Turkoman rulers incorporate a personal name, but many do not. Names that we use are often abbreviated to just titles that they chose for themselves. (More about names.)

On this coin the name and titles we use for him are in the long reverse legend which, unusually, continues the reverse legend onto the obverse where it says:
Obverse  transliteration               translation
Top:         bin Alpi bin               son of Alpi son of
Bottom:   Timurtash bin             Timartush son of
Left:        Il-Ghazi       a title meaning "one who fights against infidels" both he and his great-grandfather used as part of their names
Right:      bin Artuq                       son of Artuq
So, the geneology on this coin covers four generations!

The reverse legend has five lines: 
              transliteration                    translation
                Il-Ghazi               "ghazi" means "one who fights against infidels". These are stylized titles.
Li-Mawlana al-Malik al-'alim     belonging to our lord, superior)
al-'adil Qutb al-Din            the Just One, pole of the religion ["Qutb" means "pole", so "stands up for", "al-Din" means "of the faith/religion"] 
Malik al-umara Shah            Lord of the emirs (commanders), Shah (lord)
Diyarbakr                         of Diyarbakr [a region around a fortress, now a city with over 1 million people]. 

So, the name we know the ruler by, "Qutb al-Din Il-Ghazi II" consists entirely of titles as ruler without any part personal to him when he was young. I found this method of naming rulers odd until I recalled that the Roman emperor we call Augustus at first had coins with "CAESAR DIVI F" for "Son of the deified Caesar" (a geneological reference). Later, after he was awarded by the Senate the honorific title "Augustus" --which means something like "revered"--many of his coins have "CAESAR AUGVSTVS" on them. His coins have geneology and titles, just like Turkman coins, and do not have his personal name, "Octavian," on them. Turkoman coin names are not so terribly odd after all. 

Legends and Names.  Rulers' names with full titulature are often long with numerous components, for example "Al-Ashraf Muzaffar al-Din Abu al-Fath Musa ibn al-A'Dil." Naturally we want to shorten this, but which components should be retained? I follow Album's Checklist. This name is rendered "al Ashraf Musa."
    Islamic rulers identified themselves on coins by some combination of their personal name, their pedigree, their titles as ruler, and honorific titles they assumed upon gaining power. For example,

"Al-Ashraf / Muzaffar al-Din/ Abu al-Fath / Musa / ibn al-A'Dil." (Ayyubid ruler, AD 1210-1220).
Al-Ashraf               The Noble
Muzzaffar al-Din     Victorious in the faith
Abu al-Fath            Father of al-Fath
Musa                     Musa (his personal name)
ibn al-'Adil          son of al-'Adil  (son of the Just One [the name of the previous ruler who was a brother of Saladin])

That combination can be long and we often abbreviate it. For example, the brother of Saladin is commonly known as "al-'Adil" which is "The Just One" meaning "The Just King." That identifies him, but abbreviating his full name to that omits his personal name, his pedigree, and any reference to what he was king of.

Names on coins have parts from this list of four types: 
     ism        personal name, e.g. Muhammad or Musa
     nasab    part of the name giving pedigree, e.g "son of ..." (bin or ibn ...)
     laqab    title assumed as ruler, e.g. "The Good King", "Commander of the Faithful", "One who Fights Against Infidels" 
     kunya   compound part beginning with "Abu" ("father of")

Glossary and Spelling. Here are words commonly found in Turkoman coin legends. Be aware they can be, and often are, spelled slightly differently (e.g. "il" for "al", "el" or "en" for "al", "Aadil" for "'Adil", "Urtuki" for "Artuqid", "Ilghazi" for "il-Ghazi", or "Kotb" for "Qutb", "ed-din" for "al-din"). Also, academic transliteration uses diacritical marks to distinguish similar words, for example malik (King or Prince) and mâlik (Lord). I omit the marks for simplicity. 
  Some coins have the "Kalima"" (profession of faith): "There is no God except Allah. He is alone. [There is] no partner to him." (This is in denial of the Trinity of Christianity.)  

Transliteration       translation

al-'alim          the "Wise" 
         e.g.  "al-Malik al-'alim"  "The Wise King"
al-Din                           "of the faith/religion" 
         e.g.  "Saif al-Din"   "Sword of the Faith", 
         e.g.  Nasir al-Din  "Defender of the Faith" or "Supporter of the religion" 
Abu    "father of"
         e.g. Abu Bakr, "father of Bakr"
'adil           "just" or "justice" (as in "the Just One")
         e.g. the ruler we know as "Al-'adil" the brother of Saladin. 
amir      "commander"
         e.g. "commander of the faithful/believers"
ashraf          "noble"
bin = ibn = b.      "son of" in pedigrees
       e.g.  bin Alpi    "son of Alpi"
Diyarbakr            The name of a fortress and city
fakhr    "pride"
       e.g. Fakhr a-Din Abu Bakr  "Pride of the Faith, Abu Bakr"
ghazi                 "one who fights against infidels"
ibn  = bin         "son of"  in pedigrees
iman       "one who is followed" i.e. the Caliph (the religious, as opposed to secular, leader)
Jazira               the region of upper Mesopotamia
kamil       "perfect"
          e.g. el-Malik el Kamil   "The Perfect King" for Mohammed bin Abu Bakr (1218-1238)
malik            a title "lord," "king," or "prince".  A rank below "Sultan." 
        e.g. Malik Diyarbakr    "lord of (the region) Diyarbakr." 
               Malik al-umara  "lord of the commanders"
Mu’azzam    "August" or "Mighty"
mu'min    "believer" 
        e.g. "Amir al-mu'minin"  "Commander of the Believers/Faithful" on S/S35
muzaffar         "victorious"
-- na            suffix for "our"
Najm         "star"   
         e.g. Najm al-Din  "Star of the Faith"
Nasir        "defender" or "supporter"
         e.g. Nasir al-Din  "Defender of the faith" or "Supporter of the religion" 
         e.g. "el-malik en-nasir"  "The defending King," a title of Saladin [Plant, p. 73] 
Nur     "light"
        e.g. Nur al-Din  "Light of the Faith"
qutb     "pole", so "stands up for" as in "Qutb al-Din Il-Ghazi II" ["Stands up for the faith/religion, one who fights against infidels"] (example above)
saif     "sword",
         e.g. "Saif al-Din" "Sword of the Faith"
salah       "honor"
salih   "good/righteous"  e.g. "al-Malik al Salih" = "The Good King"
         e.g. "Salih al-Din" "Righteous of the Faith" who we call "Saladin" (foe of Richard the Lion Heart)
umara       the commanders = emirs
         e.g  "Malik al-umara"  "lord of the commanders" 

[S/S page 179 has a glossary. See Plant, p. 72ff for some translations.]

Spelling of transliterations. Steve Album notes that Plant’s book uses a popular Egyptian transliteration that is different from the standard international transliteration, used in most of the academic world (main exemption: Germany)--essentially everywhere that English is the chief academic language. 

Example from SSS Ayyubid 3:
Plant:      el-malik en-nasir salah ed-dunya wa ed-din Yusuf bin Ayyubid  [Plant.p. 74]
Album:   al-malik al-naṣir ṣalāḥ al-dunyā wa’l-dīn yūsuf bin ayyūb   [On some examples the engraver failed to leave enough room so the final “bin ayyūb” is totally or partially omitted.]
“The victorious king, supporter of the world and the religion Yusuf son of Ayyub”

Dates:  Many Turkoman (and other Islamic) coins have the dates on them explicitly, e.g. year 562. Of course., these are AH dates from the Islamic era. Those years do not correspond exactly with AD years, but this table gives the AD year with the most overlap. So, year 562 falls mostly in AD 1167.

For equivalents of AH dates to the nearest day, see Mitcher's World of Islam, p. 43ff. 
 

References.  The primary reference for Turkoman figural coins is "Spengler and Sayles," that is, Turkoman Figural Bronze Coins and Their Iconography, volumes 1 (Artuqids) and 2 (Zengids), by William Spengler and Wayne Sayles. A third volume for all the other dynasties was intended but Spengler died and it was not written. A supplement giving ID numbers for types not in the first two volumes is on the web: 
 http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Turkoman/Turkoman.html.  It has photos and ID numbers, but almost no commentary.

Plant, Richard. Arabic Coins and How to Read Them. Hardcover. 148 pages, with many line-drawing throughout. About 40 pages are relevant to this time period. 

Here is a page of references which includes books and sale catalogs. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/Turkoman.html 
 

Go to the page with a collection of Turkoman figural coins. 

Go to the page on figural types not in Spengler and Sayles.

Go to the main Table of Contents for this educational site.