Islamic Scarce AE dirham w/man on leopard, Nasir al-din Artuq Arslan (1201-39), Artuqids of Mardin

ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Mardin). Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan. AH 597-637 / AD 1200-1239. Dated AH 606 (AD 1209/10). Male figure seated side-saddle on leopard left; name and titles of Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan in outer margin // Name and titles of Abbasid caliph in three lines; mint formula and AH date in outer margins. 29mm, 10.24 grams. Mardin mint. Whelan Type III, 64-5; S&S Type 39; Album 1830.3. 

The medieval figural copper coins of the Artuqids, Zangids, and other contemporary Islamic dynasties are among the most remarkable and unusual issues in Islamic numismatics. Their designs frequently borrowed from ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Persian coinage, reproducing classical busts, imperial portraits, mythological figures, astrological symbols and even the bust of Christ alongside Arabic inscriptions naming Muslim rulers and their titles. This extraordinary fusion of classical imagery and Islamic epigraphy produced a distinctive and often strikingly beautiful coinage, virtually unparalleled in the medieval Islamic world.