150
OTTOMAN, SULAYMAN I (926-974h), Sultani, Khudayda (?) 937h. WEIGHT: 3.52g. REFERENCES: Pere 174,
Description
OTTOMAN, SULAYMAN I (926-974h), Sultani, Khudayda (?) 937h. WEIGHT: 3.52g. REFERENCES: Pere 174, same dies; Album A1118; cf Zeno 9117. CONDITION: Minor edge marks, otherwise good very fine and extremely rare. NOTE: Khudayda (modern Arabic al-Hudayda) was a port city on the west coast of Yemen. This coin is struck from the same dies as the piece which Pere attributed to Khudayda, and is stylistically very similar to the example illustrated on Zeno. The date is, unfortunately, ambiguous; comparison with the Zeno specimen suggests that the first digit is an open-topped ‘9’ and the second a ‘3’ rather than an elongated ‘2’, but the unit of the date is difficult to read. Close inspection shows that it is not simply a ‘1’ but that there is another line extending to the right, almost parallel with the rim of the coin to make a ‘7’. Diler (p. 519) listed several Ottoman coins which have been assigned to this mint, which he discussed in some detail. He evidently believed the mint-name to be spurious and based on a number of misreadings. In some cases, he was surely right – he noted that it is impossible for Ottoman coins to have been issued at Khudayda before 932h for historical reasons, and so the coins of Selim I (918-926h) assigned to Khudayda must certainly be misattributed. But it is less easy to dismiss sultanis of Khudayda in this way, given that the Zeno specimen appears to be dated 936h, while the year on the present coin seems best read as 937h. Moreover, Diler’s further observation that coins attributed to Khudayda seem not to have a Yemeni provenance is to some extent irrelevant, especially where ‘Khudayda’ can be shown on historical grounds to be a misreading. In these cases the coin in question had no connection with the Yemen in the first place and one would hardly expect it to be found there. Khudayda is in any case a port town, so it would hardly be surprising if any gold coins in particular struck there may have travelled overseas. The main Ottoman Yemeni mint at this time was located at Zabid, where sultanis were struck in various years between 932h and 962h. All carry the actual year of issue rather than the Sultan’s accessional year, a feature which they share with the present coin and the Zeno specimen. This is in contrast with sultanis from the mint of Jazira, a mint-name which Diler correctly notes would be written with similar letter-forms to Khudayda; these appear to be known dated 926h only. Diler also points out that the mint-name could be read as ‘Jadida’, and claims that ‘there were at least 7 localities called al-Jedeide in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, which would have been written like al-Khudayda but with a diacritical point under the first letter.’ But the only one of these which Diler himself records as a mint is not recorded as having issued Ottoman coins, and seems only to have been active under the Golden Horde (Diler p. 428). So a hypothetical ‘Jadida’ or ‘Jedeide’ would equally be an unpublished mint and, as Diler himself notes ‘…it is very easy to attribute a coin to a locality but extremely difficult to disprove it.’
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OTTOMAN, SULAYMAN I (926-974h), Sultani, Khudayda (?) 937h. WEIGHT: 3.52g. REFERENCES: Pere 174, same dies; Album A1118; cf Zeno 9117. CONDITION: Minor edge marks, otherwise good very fine and extremely rare. NOTE: Khudayda (modern Arabic al-Hudayda) was a port city on the west coast of Yemen. This coin is struck from the same dies as the piece which Pere attributed to Khudayda, and is stylistically very similar to the example illustrated on Zeno. The date is, unfortunately, ambiguous; comparison with the Zeno specimen suggests that the first digit is an open-topped ‘9’ and the second a ‘3’ rather than an elongated ‘2’, but the unit of the date is difficult to read. Close inspection shows that it is not simply a ‘1’ but that there is another line extending to the right, almost parallel with the rim of the coin to make a ‘7’. Diler (p. 519) listed several Ottoman coins which have been assigned to this mint, which he discussed in some detail. He evidently believed the mint-name to be spurious and based on a number of misreadings. In some cases, he was surely right – he noted that it is impossible for Ottoman coins to have been issued at Khudayda before 932h for historical reasons, and so the coins of Selim I (918-926h) assigned to Khudayda must certainly be misattributed. But it is less easy to dismiss sultanis of Khudayda in this way, given that the Zeno specimen appears to be dated 936h, while the year on the present coin seems best read as 937h. Moreover, Diler’s further observation that coins attributed to Khudayda seem not to have a Yemeni provenance is to some extent irrelevant, especially where ‘Khudayda’ can be shown on historical grounds to be a misreading. In these cases the coin in question had no connection with the Yemen in the first place and one would hardly expect it to be found there. Khudayda is in any case a port town, so it would hardly be surprising if any gold coins in particular struck there may have travelled overseas. The main Ottoman Yemeni mint at this time was located at Zabid, where sultanis were struck in various years between 932h and 962h. All carry the actual year of issue rather than the Sultan’s accessional year, a feature which they share with the present coin and the Zeno specimen. This is in contrast with sultanis from the mint of Jazira, a mint-name which Diler correctly notes would be written with similar letter-forms to Khudayda; these appear to be known dated 926h only. Diler also points out that the mint-name could be read as ‘Jadida’, and claims that ‘there were at least 7 localities called al-Jedeide in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, which would have been written like al-Khudayda but with a diacritical point under the first letter.’ But the only one of these which Diler himself records as a mint is not recorded as having issued Ottoman coins, and seems only to have been active under the Golden Horde (Diler p. 428). So a hypothetical ‘Jadida’ or ‘Jedeide’ would equally be an unpublished mint and, as Diler himself notes ‘…it is very easy to attribute a coin to a locality but extremely difficult to disprove it.’
Important Coins of the Islamic World
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