Dirhem: Historical Arab Silver and Bronze Coin

Illustrated Specimen Details: Dirhem (Artuqids)

Example Specimen: Bronze Dirhem, 1152-1176 AD

Authority: Issued by Najm al-Din Alpi, the Artuqid ruler of Mardin and Mayyafariqin (son of Timurtash). The Artuqid State was an Anatolian beylik of the Seljuk Empire, ruling parts of modern Turkey, Syria, and Iraq between 1102 and 1409.

Design & Inscriptions: This specimen is a countermarked coin originally struck by Najm al-Din Alpi's father, Husam al-Din Timurtash. The obverse features a diademed bust — a curious design copied from the silver tetradrachms of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus VII, who ruled over a millennium earlier. The reverse and margins contain Kufic script: "Malik al-Umara Abu'l-Muzaffar Alpi Timurtash Il Ghazi Artuq". The countermark in Arabic reads "Najim al-Din".

1. ARAB WORLD (7th century — present): historical silver dirhem (or Kufic dirhem) and modern currency dirham.

DIRHEM as a coin name: The dirhem is one of the most widespread coin names in history. Derived from the Greek drachm, it served as the primary silver currency of the Islamic world, positioned between the copper fals and the gold dinar.

History, Etymology, and Types of the Dirhem

The word dirhem (درهم) has been used for over a millennium across vast territories, from Al-Andalus to Central Asia. While both "dirhem" and "dirham" refer to the same Arabic root, numismatists often distinguish between them: the dirhem usually refers to ancient or medieval historical issues, while the dirham denotes modern currencies (such as those of Morocco or the UAE).

Origins and the Greek Connection

The name itself is a linguistic adaptation of the Greek term drachmē. As the Islamic Caliphate expanded into former Byzantine and Sasanian territories, it adapted the existing monetary systems. The silver drachm became the dirhem, maintaining its role as a stable medium of exchange for trade along the Silk Road.

The Artuqid "Pictorial" Dirhems

While traditional Islamic dirhems are strictly epigraphic (featuring only calligraphy, such as the Square dirhem), the Artuqids of Mardin produced a fascinating series of "pictorial" bronze dirhems.

These coins are unique because they break the traditional Islamic prohibition against depicting human figures. The Artuqid rulers, likely influenced by the diverse cultures of Eastern Anatolia and the Crusader states, often copied designs from ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine coins. The specimen shown above, featuring a Seleucid-style bust, is a prime example of this numismatic mystery — why a 12th-century Muslim ruler chose to mimic a pagan king from 1,000 years prior remains a subject of intense academic debate.

Economic Role and Variation

In its "classic" silver form, the dirhem was a thin, wide coin with a high degree of purity. It was the "dollar of the Middle Ages," found in hoards as far north as Scandinavia, proving its importance in international commerce. Over centuries, various dynasties issued specialized types, including the highly stylized Kufic scripts used by the Abbasid Caliphate.

The bronze dirhems, like those of the Artuqids, were used for local circulation and often varied significantly in weight and size. Despite their crude manufacture or "borrowed" designs, they represent a period of remarkable cultural exchange in the medieval Near East, where Islamic authority and Hellenistic art unexpectedly met on the surface of a coin.