I have little interest in Islamic or Arabic coins. A couple of those I do have are from Northern India. One badly encrusted bronze was from Mamluk Egypt, so only marginally "ancient." I also have an Abbasid silver coin about the size of a transit token whose identity I'm uncertain of. The dealer who sold it to me for $5 back in the 1980s ID'd it as 10th. century Abbasid. The Abbasids were the second line of caliphs, after the Ummayads. The problem is that I've seen a lot of Abbasid coins since, on the internet and in dealer's collections, and mine looks nothing like them! I've searched the inte
rnet for a match and found nothing convincing. Nor does my expert dealer know what it is ... other than it is Islamic. The final Islamic coin I have is a badly worn bronze thing that was copied from comparable Byzantine coins when the Arabs overran Syria. They are usually called "Standing Caliph" types because they resemble the standing Byzantine emperor on the coins of conquered lands.

That was how matters stood with my collection for ages. But early this year I bought a very fine silver Dirham that was struck by Haroun Al Rashid in the late 8th or early 9th century. It was a fairly modern looking coin. As usual, there was nothing to see on it but Arabic squiggles on both sides. That's why I don't collect Islamic coins. Bor - ring! I wanted this one for a particular reason, though. Haround Al Rashid, the caliph who minted it, as the caliph of "A Thousand and One Nights." Yes, he was a real person ... though the stories are just stories. Nobody told them to the caliph that way.

So, what's this? The one other Islamic coin I wanted was one by Saladin, but I never seemed able to find one. Finally, my favourite dealer offered me two. One was what is called a "mule." That is, it was struck with the same die on both sides, rather like a Lincoln Head penny with Honest Abe on back and front. I decided that wasn't for me. The other Saladin was this one. It's a bit peculiar too. While the sides were struck with different dies, they were the dies for a larger coin, a full Dirham. This is a half Dirham and too small for the entire strike, so the inscription runs off the edge. Mind you, off-center strikes happens a lot with ancient coins anyway, so this didn't seem so unusual. I bought it. Strangely, though Saladin struck these in the late 12th century, they are more primitive-looking by far than the coins of Al Rashid, struck nearly three centuries earlier!

Who is Saladin? Was he the guy who brought tea to England? No, no, no... Saladin was the most famous of all Saracens who fought the European crusaders in the Middle Ages. He was canny and quite successful in driving the "Franks" -- as the Muslims knew the crusaders -- from Jerusalem and most of the Middle East. He was also known for his chivalrous behaviour. When Jerusalem fell, he spared the inhabitants. That's more than the crusaders did when they took Jerusalem a generation earlier. Richard the Lionhearted spoke highly of Saladin. I'd love to know what Saladin said of Richard, since the English king was in fact a bloodthirsty monster with little love of anything but war and money to wage war with. Strangley, Saladin is not so famous in the Islamic world as he was in Europe. His generosity may have been his undoing, because he died bankrupt. His progeny carried on his dynasty -- the Ayyubids -- but the Europeans had not been completely expelled from the Middle East. They still held impregnable fortresses such as the Krak de Chevalier, as well as major coastal cities such as Antioch and Aleppo. It took another militant hero, the Mamluk sultan Baybars from Egypt, to finall throw the European presence out of the Holy Land. So it is Baybars the Islamic world reverse, not Saladin. But, honestly... can you imagine anyone drinking "Baybars Tea?" Of course not. It had to be Saladin.