Morton & Eden Ltd.
Lot 99
FATIMID, AL-BASASIRI / AL-MUSTANSIR (427-487h)Dinar, Madinat al-Salam 451h, month of al-MuharramOBVERSE: In field: letter ‘ayn after name Ma‘addWEIGHT: 4.98gREFERENCE: Nicol 2094; Jafar F.MS.451d, same diesCONDITION: Struck from a worn reverse die, otherwise extremely fine with some lustre, rare NOTE: This famous issue of Fatimid dinars from Baghdad dates from a period of twelve months during 450-451h when the city was briefly held by the Fatimid partisan Arslan al-Basasiri. He was a Turkish general who had enjoyed status and prestige when Baghdad and the Abbasid caliph were under Buwayhid protection. With the fall of the Buwayhids and the arrival of the Great Seljuqs under Tughril Beg, al-Basasiri began to fear for his own position and started making overtures to the Fatimids. One may question how deeply al-Basasiri, the former protector of the Sunni caliph, was now attached to the Fatimid cause, but he was given money and arms to support his operations against the Seljuqs. At this period the authority of the Abbasid caliph, al-Qa’im, was limited to religious affairs, with political and military matters firmly in the hands of the Great Seljuq sultan, Tughril Beg. In 450h, however, he was campaigning elsewhere in his domains and had taken his entire army with him. Al-Basasiri was therefore able to enter Baghdad with only a small force. Whether Tughril Beg had misjudged the situation, or whether he had deliberately exposed the city in this way for his own political reasons, the khutba in Baghdad, capital of the Sunni caliphs, was now being read in the name of the Fatimid al-Mustansir. Al-Basasiri even forced al-Qa`im to sign a declaration waiving the rights of the Abbasids to the caliphate as long as the Fatimid line endured. As well as the khutba al-Basasiri also used the coinage to assert al-Mustansir`s authority in Baghdad. Jafar (op. cit.) reports a contemporary belief that al-Basasiri had been supplied with these dinars in advance rather than actually striking them in Baghdad while the city and mint were under his control. Rather than the characteristic Fatimid ‘bull’s-eye’ types with several concentric rings of legends, al-Basasiri`s dinars follow a design not otherwise being currently issued in the Fatimid lands but which would have been closer to other types then circulating in Baghdad. In spite of his successes al-Basasiri seems to have received surprisingly little support from the Fatimids once he had taken control of Baghdad. It may be that they had never intended him to remain there indefinitely: Tughril Beg and his powerful army would certainly return to Baghdad eventually, while there are reports of al-Basasiri antagonizing the citizens and even committing atrocities against them. The Fatimids may have been content with the propaganda value of a symbolic victory, not to mention the document al-Qa`im signed abrogating his caliphal rights. Al-Basasiri also tried unsuccessfully to capture the caliphal heir, who would have been a real prize for the Fatimids and of great value in future negotiations.
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