Ayyubid Coins in the Light of the Samples of Mardin Museum

Coin has been a financial and cultural symbol of rulers, governments and states in almost all the time. The writings, motifs and figures on the coins reflect the style, form of belief and shapes of the period they were issued. These billets act as documents in terms of presenting certain information and making a major contribution to such scientific fields as History, Art, History of Religions, Philology and Art History.Mardin, which has an important position in terms of its geopolitical and socio-cultural structure, undertook the mission of becoming a bridge between Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The museum of the city, which has hosted many civilizations, consists of works carried from settlements around. One of the most important sections in this diversity is the coin.Most of the 10,000 coins, which are in the exhibition and store, are from Islamic Period works. This study aims at describing, presenting the general feature and examining motive and ornament details of the works of the Ayyubid Period, among the coins of Islamic period, and not repeating each other.36 samples of the Ayyubid Period were investigated in the museum. 1 of these samples is gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze. Coins were printed in Cairo, Egypt, Silvan and especially Damascus and Aleppo. The used writing style is cufic. Coins can be divided into two groups. While the first one is written coins, the second one is figured. There is not figure on gold and silver coins but on bronze ones. Most diversified types of periphery curb regarding written coins are seen in this period. The common point of full circle, rectangle, interlaced and star formed periphery curbs is the usage of pearl row between the curbs arranged in double-row. Figured Ayyubid coins have many similarities with Artuqid ones. Besides the ruler portrayal given from the front in the shape of bust, lion figure placed singly into the centre welcome us as a rare composition.One of the basic characteristics of Ayyubid coins is that their obverse writings begin with el-Imam and reverse side with el-Melik. The Sultan used the titles such as Imam as the supporter of Allah and religion, the emir of Muslims, the father of conquest and religionist. Islamic confession of faith was used on the reverse sides of coins as the effect of a tradition and belief. There is a reference to the caliphate in Ayyubid coins.The goal of our investigation is to perform a general evaluation of the works in the museum on the basis of the characteristics of the period, and add this private collection to coin catalogues prepared in international platforms by introducing it to the science world. In this manner, Ayyubid coins were classified in the light of determined samples and their periodical characteristics were presented by examining them in detail.