Arabic Legend on the Silver Coins with “Stirrup” Tamga
Authors: Sidorenko Valery 
Published: December 2023

This article suggests a reading of the legend of the Golden Horde silver coins with a “stirrup-shaped” tamga, the inscription “minted in Crimea,” the motto “padishah of Islam,” and the lakab of the ruler: nuṣratun/al-dunya w-/al-dīn, or “the assistance to peace and faith.” The attempts to decipher the inscription showing abbreviations and inserted into the legend are restricted to the readings its ending, where A. K. Markov viewed “of the year six hundred and ninety,” and N. I. Veselovskii “of the year of eight hundred.” According to these readings, the first attributed the coins in question to the mintage of Iisu Nogai, giving him the khan’s title, and the second to the last years of Khan Toktamysh. N. P. Likhachev has run to the conclusion also shared by R. R. Fasmer that all the readings are doubtful. At present, the author of this article has attributed the silver coins with the “stirrup-shaped” tamga to the “Muslim” mintage of the master of the Crimean ulus Tuka Timur, a son of Jochi, that started in Crimea when Berke and the military elite of the Gorden Horde turned to Islam. The key to the reading of the mysterious legend is the silver dirhams minted in Konya by Izz ad-Din Keikavus II, a son of Giyas ad-Din Keikhusrov II, 658 AH (18.12.1259‒5.12.1260 AD), which until recently were attributed to Keikavus I and dated to 608 AH by S. Lane-Poole, A. K. Markov, A. Tewhid, and G. Hennequin. The legend on the Konya dirhams of Keikhusrov II written in the style similar to the legend on the “Muslim” coins of Tuka Timur reads: “Minted in the city of Konya in the year eight and five (=fifty) and six hundred.” There is an online publication with the correct definition of such a dirham originating from the oriental coins collection in the David Museum (Denmark), which publishers have attributed the spelling of the numerical “five” to the abbreviations dīvanī for the decade hamsin, which occur in the inscriptions of the mints of Saljūqiyān-i Rūm from 646 AH (26.04.1248‒15.04.1249) to the end of the Konya Sultanate (1307 AD). However, in this case the symbol seems to not correspond to the dīvanī abbreviation of “five” (o), though it resembles its indication tens as ones. The legend of the silver coins with “stirrup” tamga clearly show the dīvanī abbreviation “one” (o|) located on the imprint of the first coin stamp at hours 4‒5, and on all the later stamps at hour 12. The legend on the first coin stamp reads “This dinar was minted in Āḳrā in the year one (abbreviated as dīvanī) and six(ty), then ‒ six hundred,” and on the others as “You are minted in Āḳrā in the year one (dīvanī) and six(ty), then ‒ six hundred.” The initial date of the coin issue (661 AH) is not unexpected. It coincides with the date when Tuka Timur, Berke, and the military elite of the Golden Horde accepted Islam as the second religion of state (with the Tengri religion of the Mongols). which happened in the mid-661 AH. Especially important is the name of the mint Āḳrā, which appears together with the inscription on the same coin side as “minted in Crimea.” The same mint and the same mention of the Crimea (Qīrīm Āḳrā) appear on the “pre-Muslim” yarmaks of Tuka Timur, which preceded the coins with the “stirrup” tamga. Be that as it may, this article does not consider the question of the name and location of the Tukatimurids’ mint and the first “capital” of the Crimean ulus.