3.172 gr., 14.5 mm.
YAVUZ SULTAN SELİM’İN
924 SENESİNDE HALEB’DE DARBEDİLMİŞ TARİHİ SİKKESİ
Kenneth M. MacKENZIE
When Selim I captured Aleppo (Halep) he struck an altun with the date 922 (see Nuri Pere No. 115). There were many gold pieces found there struck by the Mamluks, and also many ustruck pieces, which may have been used by Selim tor his first issue in this city. A change in the dating of the coin from the accession date of the sultan normally placed on new coins, to amother year was sometimes done to celebrate an important event such as this conquest. It was on this occasion that he received the title “Servant of the Holy Places” (Khâdim al-haramyn al-Sharifayn) in the presense of Al-Mutawakkil in the great mosque of Aleppo. Later in the same year the Khutbah was delivered in Egypt and Cairo. “Sultan bin al-Sultan King of the two continents and the two seas, conqueror of the two armies, Sultan of the two ‘Iraks, Servant of the two sacred cities, the victorious King Selim Shah and Lord if bott worids grant that he may be ever victorious”.
3.172 gr., 14.5 mm.
On September 10th 1517 (AH 923) having appointed Kha’ir Beg as Pasha of Egypt, he began his long march back to Anatolia, reaching Aleppo in March 1518 (AH 924), where he stayed until May before going on to Constantinople which he reached in July. The first detailed (mufassal) register in the Daftar-i Khakani bears this year date for this city.
It was at this time that the coin described herein was struck, prabably to mark the sultan’s brief stay in the re-occupied city. it is of pale gold, with a specific gravity of 12.8 which equals 57 % AV if the alloy is copper alone, or 49 % AV if the alloy is copper ond silver 50/50; and in the low 40s if of silver alone. The illustration of the coin isn’t too clear, but the figure shows the legends on the obverse and reverse, (the dark and shaded portions can be seen on the coin, the other parts would appear to be the full legnd as used by the die engraver) in the opinion of the writer. The new title “Servant of the Holy Places” doesn’t appear on the coins of Selim, but is seen on a dirhem struck in Constantinople in 1523 (AH 930) by Süleyman Kanuni for the first time.
It is interesting to note that in an account of the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1516 (AH 922) told by an eyewitness Muhammad bin Iyas, that a group of workers of the mint were arrested in 1519 (AH 925) because of the low quality of the Ortoman gold and silver coins. The mualam Dar al Darb (technical and financial manager) was made personally responsible. He had to ccmpensate the treasury of a large sum and was obliged to send the guilty ones to Constantinople. Perhaps such mal-practice extended to the mint in Aleppo, the specimen described here is even 1,5 mm less in diameter, and 0,128 gr. less in weight than the altun of Aleppo dated 922 mentioned by Pere.