FATIMIDS OF EGYPT AND AL-MAGHRIB - al-Musta'li, AH 487-495 (1094-1101). Dinar AH 493 (1099-1100), Misr (Egypte). Inscription sur deux lignes entourée de deux légendes circulaires séparées par un cercle vide / Inscription sur deux lignes entourée de deux légendes circulaires séparées par un cercle vide. 4,31g. A 725.2 ; Nicol 2420.

Superbe exemplaire.

Notes
Al-Musta‘li introduced a new style of coinage in AH 490, with two concentric circles around a two-word central legend on both obverse and reverse. This type continued under the later Fatimids and then the Ayyubids for over a century and a quarter. After al-Musta’li's death in AH 495 (1101), the vizier al-Afdal decided to rule for the five-year-old al-Amir, al-Musta’li’s youngest son. The choice of al-Amir rather than Nizar, the eldest, broke with the system of primogeniture which had until AH 487 been the Fatimids’ family law. While this succession was generally accepted in Egypt, and had the backing of the army, the Isma‘ili followers in Iran supported Nizar. They broke away from the Fatimids, later to become famous as the Batinids or Assassins of Alamut in northern Iran. The line of the Agha Khan, who is the spiritual heir of the Nizari Isma‘ilis, has continued to claim direct succession from Nizar until the present day.