FAQs

What makes a coin valuable?

Plus Icon

I have coins to sell, what’s the next step?

Plus Icon

How will my purchases be shipped?

Plus Icon

What happens if I’m not entirely happy with my purchase?

Plus Icon
KM39171

Emir of Algarve Square Dirham

Regular price £795
Regular price Sale price £795

Islamic Portugal, Musa b. Muhammad (AH 631-660 / 1234-1262 AD), with title Amir of the West, square silver Qirat or Dirham, no mint, no date, citing the Abbasid caliph anonymously as al-'Abbas, obverse legend Allah Rabbuna, Muhammad rasuluna, al-´Abbas, imamuna, rev. Amir al-Gharb, al-Musta´in bi-Allah, Musa ibn Muhammad, ibn Nasr ibn Mahfuz (Formerly Album I 410, now Album 4275; Vives 2123).

The obverse inscription can be translated: God is our lord / Muhammad is our messenger / the Abbasid caliph is our imam.

Musa b. Muhammad, known as Ibn Mahfuz (Aben Mafom), leader in Algarve. He fled from Seville and established a new emirate further west with its capital at Huelva in south-western Spain. The emirate stretched west from Huelva across southern Portugal, the area now known as the Algarve, as far as Aljezur, the last Muslim stronghold to fall in Portugal. The site of the mint itself is now thought to be Niebla, near Huelva, in Spain close to the Portuguese border.

In an effort to defend his new emirate from the Portuguese, Ibn Mafouz became a vassal of the King of Castile, Ferdinand III. Using this as his claim, after the emirate had fallen to the Portuguese, Ferdinand invaded the Algarve himself in 1250 and claimed it for Castile.

FAQs

What makes a coin valuable?

Plus Icon

I have coins to sell, what’s the next step?

Plus Icon

How will my purchases be shipped?

Plus Icon

What happens if I’m not entirely happy with my purchase?

Plus Icon
1 of 4