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, a Turkish dynasty of mediaeval Islam which, at the peak of its power during the 5th-6th/11th-12th centuries, ruled over, either directly or through vassal princes, a wide area of Western Asia from Transoxania, Farg̲h̲āna, the Semirečye and K̲h̲wārazm in the east to Anatolia, Syria and the Ḥid̲j̲āz in the west. From the core of what became the Great Sald̲j̲ūḳ empire, subordinate lines of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ family maintained themselves in regions like Kirmān (till towards the end of the 6th/12th century), Syria (till the opening years of…

(a.), forgery of coins. There are many words associated with counterfeit coins: tazyīf , forgery, from zāfa , to be adulterated, forged, hence zāʾif and zayf , pl. zuyūf , false coin, and muzayyif , forger; zag̲h̲ala , to adulterate, counterfeit, hence zag̲h̲al , counterfeit coin; ḳalaba , to change, transform, hence Arabic ḳallāb , a counterfeiter, Arabic, Persian and Turkish ḳalb , false, base, impure, ḳalpazan , counterfeiter, from the Persian ḳalb-zan ; ḳallada , to falsify, hence taḳlīd , counterfeit, and muḳallad , counterfeited. The term bahrad̲j̲ ., cou…

(a.), literally, an iron ploughshare, and an iron stamp or die used for stamping coins ¶ (see Lane, Lexicon , 1937). From the latter meaning, it came to denote the result of the stamping, i.e. the legends on the coins, and then, the whole operation of minting coins. 1. Legal and constitutional aspects. As in the Byzantine and Sāsānid empires to which the Arab caliphate was heir, the right of issuing gold and silver coinage was a royal prerogative. Hence in the caliphate, the operation of sikka , the right of the ruler to place his name on the coinage, eventua…

(p.), lit. “a souvenir, a keepsake” and, by extension, in numismatics any special issue of coins struck for a variety of non-currency purposes. In Islamic history the striking of coins was a special responsibility and prerogative of the ruler [see sikka ] together with having his name mentioned in the Friday bidding prayer [see k̲h̲uṭba ]. In general, coinage serves two major purposes. Primarily it is a medium of exchange between a government and its people, i.e. to facilitate taxation payments or to support internal and international commerce. Gover…

, usually written thus in Arabic and Persian contexts, and pronounced tümen in Turkish and Mongolian ones, a term used in the eastern Islamic lands in mediaeval times with military, financial and administrative connotations. The term appears to have entered Turkish from the Tokharian languages of what became Eastern or Chinese Turkestan, with the meaning of “10,000”, but may be of Chinese origin (see Sir Gerard Clauson, An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Oxford 1972, 507; G. Doerfer, Türkische und mongolische Elemente in Neupersischen …

, a dynasty which ruled in Persia as “sovereigns 907-1135/1501-1722, as fainéants 1142-8/1729-36, and thereafter, existed as pretenders to the throne up to 1186/1773. I. Dynastic, political and military history. The establishment of the Ṣafawid state in 907/1501 by S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl I [ q.v.] (initially ruler of Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ān only) marks an important turning-point in Persian history. In the first place, the Ṣafawids restored Persian sovereignty over the whole of the area traditionally regarded as the heartlands of Persia for the first ti…

, terms of Islamic coinage. The present article covers what were two articles in EI 1 by J. Allan. Both words are spelled in Arabic, but are traditionally pronounced tanga or tenge in Persian and Turkish-speaking lands and tanka in the Indian sub-continent. The etymology appears to be somewhat uncertain. The earliest appearance of the word occurs in a coin legend on the bilingual Arabic/Sanskrit silver issued by the G̲h̲aznawid ruler Maḥmūd b. Sebüktigin [ q.v.] in Maḥmūdpūr (Lāhawr) in 418 and 419/1027-8, where the word tankam was used to translate the Arabic dirham …

, the name of a Turkish dynasty, ultimately of Og̲h̲uz origin [see g̲h̲uzz ], whose name appears in European sources as ottomans (Eng.), ottomanes (Fr.), osmanen (Ger.), etc. I. political and dynastic history 1. General survey and chronology of the dynasty The Ottoman empire was the territorially most extensive and most enduring Islamic state since the break-up of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate and the greatest one to be founded by Turkish-speaking peoples. It arose in the Islamic world after the devastations over much of the eastern and central lands of the Dār al-Islām …

(a.), lit. “the act of weighing”, from wazana to weigh, to balance, cf. also mīzān [ q.v.], a balance, scales; and for weights in general, see makāzīl and mawāzin . 1. As a term of numismatics. Until the 20th century, when metallic currencies were supplanted by fiduciary money and other forms of monetary instruments, the Islamic world used gold and silver as their common medium of exchange and copper as a largely token currency. The two intrinsic qualities that governed the value of these metals as coins were the purity of their alloys and the weights at which they we…

(p.), lit. “royal, kingly”. In numismatics, the name of a silver coinage denomination in Ṣafawid and post-Ṣafawid Persia until inflation gradually drove it out of circulation. The name originated in Persia after Tīmūr introduced his tangayi nuḳra in 792/1390 at 5.38 gr, half the weight of the Dihlī Sultanate tanga, 10.76 gr. Under S̲h̲āh Ruk̲h̲ the tanga-yi nuḳra’s weight was reduced to that of the mit̲h̲ḳāl , 4.72 gr, and received the popular name s̲h̲āhruk̲h̲ī . Between S̲h̲āh Ruk̲h̲’s death in 853/1449 and the accession of S̲h̲āh Ismāʿīl I Ṣafa…