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The Coinage of the Käkwayhid Dynasty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

George C. Miles
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Extract

Coins of the Kākwayhid dynasty, whose princes ruled over a part of al-Jibāl (north central Persia) in the first half of the fifth/eleventh century, are of sufficient rarity to warrant their publication whenever they come to the attention of students of Persian history. The period between the collapse of the Buwayhid power and the rise of the Seljūqs is a complex one and as ‘Alā’ al-Dawlah, the Kākwayhid, played a not unimportant role in the political events of the time, his coinage is of considerable interest. While making a study of the Muḥammad an collections in the American Numismatic Society in New York I came across seven Kākwayhid specimens, all of them unedited, and these, together with two likewise unpublished coins in my own possession and one formerly in the collection of Professor Ernst Herzfeld, I propose to describe in the present paper. As previous notices of the Kākwayhid coinage are scattered in the wide numismatic literature, I have thought it worth while to assemble, as an appendix to the descriptions of these ten new specimens, all the known issues of the two Kākwayhid rulers who (to our present knowledge) struck coins: ‘Alā’ al-Dawlah Muḥammad b Dushmanzār and his an Farāmare.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1938 , pp. 89 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1938

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References

page 89 note 1 The following bibliography (arranged chronologically) lists, I believe, all the works in which Kākwayhid coins have been described: Torn-berg, E. J., Sur un dirhem Kakweihide inédit, de la collection de M. Soret (Rev. Num. Belge, 1858)Google Scholar; Sauvaire, Henri, Lettre à M. F. Soret sur quelques dinars inédits des Selgiouquides de Perse (Rev. Num. Belge, 1862)Google Scholar; Stickel, J. G., Zur muhammedanischen Numismatik (Z.D.M.G., 1864)Google Scholar; Tiesenhausen, W., Mélanges de Numismatique orientale (Rev. Num. Belge, 1875)Google Scholar; Poole, Stanley Lane, Unpublished Coins of the Ḳāḳweyhīs (N.C., London, 1875)Google Scholar; British Museum Catalogue of Oriental Coins, III (1877)Google Scholar; Poole, Stanley Lane, Fasti Arabici, VI (N.C., London, 1887)Google Scholar; British Museum Catalogue of Oriental Coins, ix (1889)Google Scholar; Catalogue of the Coins in the Numismatic Cabinet belonging to J. Gerson da Cunha, Part Second, Bombay, 1889 Google Scholar; Lane-Poole, S., Fasti Arabici, VII (N.C., London, 1892)Google Scholar; Casanova, P., Inventaire sommaire de la Collection des Monnaies de S. A. la Princesse Ismail (Paris, 1896)Google Scholar; Markoff, A., Inventory, Hermitage (St. Petersburg, 1896)Google Scholar; J. M. C. Johnston Sale Catalogue, Sotheby (London, 1906)Google Scholar; Covernton, J. G., Some Silver Buwayhid Coins (N.C., London, 1909)Google Scholar; von Zambaur, E., Nouvelles Contributions (III) à la Numismatique Orientale (Numismatische Zeitschrift, Wien, 1914)Google Scholar; Fuÿe, Aliotte de la, Monnaies inédites des Kdkwayhids (N.C., London, 1935)Google Scholar. Tornberg's article contains an excellent sketch of the position of the Kākwayhid dynasty in the framework of fifth-century Persian history. Zambaur included a summary of the Kākwayhid coinage published up to that time (1914). Siouffi's, Tables, Janvier, 1880 Google Scholar, cited by Zambaur, has not been available to me. Several errors in Zambaur's list are noted infra. For nos. 42 and 46 in the inventory I am indebted to M. Rémy Cotte-vieille-Giraudet of the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and for nos. 14 and 32 to Mr. John Walker of the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum. Mr. Philip Thor-burn has very kindly sent me transcriptions of the legends on the coins in his collection (nos. 4, 5, 11, 12, and 23 in the inventory, no. 23 being the specimen formerly in Professor Herzfeld's collection described in full below).

page 90 note 1 The diameters are given in millimetres, the weights in grammes.

page 96 note 1 The name of the Caliph, al-Qādir or al-Qā'im, of course, appears on all the coins.

page 98 note 1 Allotte de la Fuÿe makes an unaccountable remark on p. 70 of his article: ‘elles portent … le nom du Calife …’. But the descriptions have correctly al-Qādir.

page 98 note 2 No. 31 was in the Johnston Collection and probably takes care of another of the ‘5 coins’.

page 98 note 3 Zambaur in Contrib. in, list, p. 145, has this coin entered as 415, not queried. Actually only the of (?) is preserved.

page 99 note 1 Zambaur in Contrib. III, list, p. 145, has an entry ‘ Hamadân, 413’ with reference to Covernton; but I find no such coin in Covernton's article.

page 100 note 1 Zambaur (Contrib. III. 146) is mistaken in saying that Hamadhān and Sābūr Khwāst are the only Kākwayhid mints which issued coins bearing the name of Samā' al-Dawlah after the letter's deposition in 414. The issues of Asadābād, Burūjird, Karaj, and Māh al-Kūfah, as well as Hamadhān and Sābūr Khwāst, all bear his name.

page 100 note 2 The exception is no. 33, Jurbāidhaqān, 411. No. 54 seems to upset one or the other of two arguments, i.e., here we have an issue which to judge by its type should belong to Hamadhān or Māh al-Kūfah in 415–16, but which bears the name of Muhammad b. Dushmanzār accompanied by the title ‘Alā’ al-Dawlah. The latter criterion would place it towards 419. But then we hardly have enough specimens to establish the fact that Muḥammad did not frequently use titles before 419, nor for that matter to prove conclusively that the reversed titles of Samā' al-Dawlah and the type with area completely filled with Muḥammad's name are restricted to the years 415–16.

page 100 note 3 Cf. Strange, Le, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, 217–18Google Scholar.

page 100 note 4 Cf. Cl. Huart in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Kākōyids, and the authorities quoted there.

page 100 note 5 Cf. kākō, in common use among the Lurs today, meaning ‘uncle’, particularly in a friendly and jocular sense implying no genealogical relationship, not unlike the Elizabethan ‘nuncle’.

page 101 note 1 Ibn-Khallikān, de Slane, I. 442; ibn-al-Athïr, ed. Tornberg, IX. 310.

page 101 note 2 Ibn-al-Athīr, IX. 146.

page 101 note 3 Ibid. IX. 226.

page 101 note 4 Ibid. IX. 232.

page 101 note 5 Ibid. IX. 247.

page 101 note 6 Yāqūt, ed. Wüstenfeld, II. 151.

page 101 note 7 Ibn-al-Athīr, ix. 251–2.

page 101 note 8 Ibid. IX. 262, 279, 284–5; cf. nos. 12, 42–43 in the inventory above.

page 101 note 9 Ibid. IX. 288–90.

page 101 note 10 Ibid. IX. 269–70; cf. no. 44 in the inventory above.

page 101 note 11 Ibid. IX. 296–7.

page 101 note 12 Ibid. IX. 304.

page 101 note 13 Cf. nos. 13 and 14 in the inventory above.

page 101 note 14 Cf. no. 45 in the inventory above.

page 101 note 15 Ibn-al-Athīr, IX. 338.

page 101 note 16 Cf. no. 15 in the inventory above.

page 101 note 17 In Muḥarram 433/August 1041, Ibid. IX. 338.

page 102 note 1 Cf. nos. 18–19 in the inventory above.

page 102 note 2 Ibn-al-Athīr, IX. 339, 348, 355, 361, 365; and cf. nos. 20 and 21 in the inventory above.

page 102 note 3 Ibid. IX. 384–5.

page 102 note 4 Cf. E. of I. s.v. Kākōyids.

page 102 note 5 No. 1 in the inventory above; cf. also the five coins of ‘Asterabad and Saboor’ in the Johnston Sale Catalogue.

page 102 note 6 Ibn-Ḥawqal, ed. de Goeje, 256; cf. Yāqūt, 1. 245, and Le Strange, 196; Schwarz, P., Iran im Mittelalter, IV. 493 Google Scholar.

page 102 note 7 Ibn-al-Athīr, IX. 150: Shādhi b. Muḥammad.

page 102 note 8 Ibid. IX. 271.

page 102 note 9 Cf. footnote 4, p. 101, above.

page 102 note 10 Zambaur, Contrib. III. 143–4, devoted a few remarks to this town. Cf. Schwarz, op. cit. v; 648–9.

page 103 note 1 Nuzhat-al-Qulūb, ed. Strange, Le, 70, 172 Google Scholar. Note that Sābūr Khwāst is described only in connexion with routes and is omitted in the list of towns. Thus we have a probably contemporary mention of Khurramābād and a borrowed mention of Sābūr Khwāst from an earlier date.

page 103 note 2 Strange, Le, Lands, 200–2Google Scholar.

page 103 note 3 V. Minorsky, s.v. Luristān, E. of I.; Ḥudūd al-‘Alam, E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, N.S. XI (Oxford, 1937). 383 Google Scholar.

page 103 note 4 Herzfeld, Ernst, Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, 1. 74–5Google Scholar. Cf. Bode, Baron C. A. De, Travels in Luristan and Arabistan (London, 1845), 11. 259–60Google Scholar, where that energetic and enthusiastic traveller presented a full but unfortunately totally unintelligible copy of the inscription. The letters were in his day very dim; they are now even more so. Schwarz, op. cit. v. 667–9, is inclined to agree that Sābūr Khwāst, if not identical with Khurramābād, was in the neighbourhood of the latter town.

page 104 note 1 Yāqūt, IV. 250–1; cf. Le Strange, 197–8. Yāqūt says:

page 104 note 2 Ḥudūd al-'Ālam, 132.

page 104 note 3 Ibn-al-Athīr, IX. 270, 289 bis, 296. Schwarz, v. 577, assigns these events to the Karaj of abū-Dulaf, but there is not necessarily any evidence in ibn-al-Athīr that this Karaj was meant.

page 104 note 4 Ibn-al-Athīr, IX. 284–5.