| Spain, Granada |
| Gold, Diam. 31 mm. |
Mohammed VII, (reign, 1395-1407 A D) |
| Collection of the Hispanic Society of American (New York), on permanent loan to the American Numismatic Society, 1001.57.628 W: 4.645 gr |
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Long after most of Spain had fallen to reconquering Christian forces, the small Muslim state of Granada under the Nasrid dynasty survived through a skillful combination of diplomacy and tributes. A center of Islamic culture, it attracted students and men of learning from Christian Europe, as well as the Muslim West, until it fell to Spanish Christian forces in 1492. This coin's format, a square within a circle, is common in North African and Spanish coins from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries, and the legends used here are in a cursive script influenced by the Maghribi found in contemporary Qur'an. While the reverse names the city-Gharnata (Granada}-in which this coin was minted, the obverse inscribes within the square the full name of the monarch, Muhammad VII al- Mustazin (1395-1407). Around the square are written four times the words:
"There is no Victor save God"
a phrase particularly associated with the Nasrids and repeated hundreds of times on the walls of their Granada palace, the Alhamhbra. |
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| Spain or the Maghrib |
| Gold, Diam. 31 mm. |
14th or 15th century |
| Collection of the Hispanic Society of American (New York), on permanent loan to the American Numismatic Society, 1001.1.621 W: 3.870 |
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Money, like the one presented in Spain, (Granada) Mohammed VII, served as the model for this numismatic type, for it uses the square within a circle pattern seen on the Muslim coins of Spain and northwestern Africa. The inscriptions, however, are illegible and imitate the tall verticals of western Muslim coinage without con- conveying specific content. Thus the appearance of Arabic-like letters was sufficient to provide the coin with the legitimacy necessary for its acceptance as currency: as in the seventh centurSy, when for many decades Islam retained figural imagery on coinage designed for a population accustomed to associating these forms with reliable money, now Muslim epigraph (or the skillful imitation of it) provided images that inspired trust and confidence in true value. While this coin might have been struck by less-than-literate Muslims in the Maghrib, it could also have been minted by Christians in Spain who needed to appropriate Islamic numismatic formulas for a time. |
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