SQUARE DIRHAM
Numismatics
SQUARE DIRHAM
Silver.
Length: 1.4 cm. Height: 1.4 cm.
Hispano-Muslim. 12th – 13th century.
Origin
Calle José Luis Díez. Jerez de la Frontera. Cádiz.
Description
Square silver coin typical of the Almohad period. Al-Mahdi, the founder of this rigorous religious movement, became known as “the man of the square dirham”. Coins from this period bear large religious legends in cursive script on both faces precisely because of this extremely orthodox movement. For the same reason, it is unusual for them to specify the mint or name of the caliph under whose order they were minted, though in this case if it appears below the last line the mint: Fez/Fâs/. This dirham was part of a small hoard of more than 200 coins found inside a vessel in the early 1960s.
Bibliography
- Esteve Guerrero, M. 1961: “Hallazgo de dirhemes almohades en Jerez de la Frontera”. Al-Andalus XXVI. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid Granada., pp. 227-228.
- Gálvez, E., Oliva, D. y Valencia, R. 1983: “Un tesorillo de dirhemes almohades del museo arqueológico de Sevilla”. Numisma 180-185, pp. 291-329.
