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as dirhems: that the poverty of silver of those dynasties compelled them to use copper and to cover it with a coating of silver. This is a bold theory, yet there is much in favour of it; though I doubt whether at present we have quite sufficient materials wherewith to set this important question finally at rest. Dr. Karabacek advances several weighty reasons in support of the theory. In the first place there is the undoubted fact of the existence of Urtuķi and other coins with a coating of silver. The British Museum possesses several of these, and several are exhibited by Dr. Karabacek's collection. This alone is of immense weight in deciding the question. Secondly, there is the occurrence of the name dirhem upon some of these copper coins. Thirdly, the respect due to the currency is illis, Cursed be he who discredits (or dishonours) this dirhem : a curse of which Dr. Karabacek takes the obvious grammatical rendering instead of the unintelligible conjecture of Fraehn. Dr. Karabacek's translation-""Verflucht sei, wer diesem Dirhem einen Schimpf anthut"; d. h. wer ihn tadelt oder (im offentlichen Credit) herabwürdigt '-undoubtedly favours the theory. It is true that the form of the word

هذا الدرهم ملعون من يعيره inculcated by the curse

هذا الدرهم ملعون : would equally bear a different pointing

من يغيره

Cursed be he who alters this dirhem!-sc. by taking off the silver, etc.; but this reading (which has, I believe, never yet been suggested) is, in my opinion, far inferior to Dr. Karabacek's, which is thoroughly to the point. Dr. Karabacek also adduces historical testimony to the use of silvered money by the 'Abbasi Khalifehs.

There are, however, one or two points which I find at present some difficulty in getting over, and which I hope the propounder of the theory will take into his consideration, if he has not done so already. In the first place, if

these copper coins were intended to pass as dirhems (of which I have scarcely any doubt), why were they struck of such a large size? Very frequently they are more than double the diameter of contemporary silver dirhems of other dynasties. If intended for dirhems, why not of the usual size? Again, among the silvered copper coins of this and contemporary dynasties that I have seen, in all about a dozen, how is it that not one is in an intermediate state? Of this class of coin-large copper-I have seen only those which are entirely copper, without a trace of silver, (and these form the great majority,) and those which are entirely silvered, only showing copper at an occasional broken chip at the edge, or on a very prominent letter, where the copper begins slightly to show through. Now this is very strange. If these coins were all silvered once, surely many would show slight traces of the silvering, or would be, say, silvered on the ground but not on the characters. Besides, those coins which are free from all trace of silvering are often those which are in the most perfect preservation, hardly rubbed at all. A coin which had been silvered would, I am certain, have a very different surface from that of many in the Urtuķi collection in the British Museum. I feel, therefore, compelled to reject the theory that all these copper coins were once silvered. Why some were silvered and others not is a question still to be settled. I admit freely that there is ample ground for believing these coins to have passed as dirhems, and it is a fact worthy of notice that hardly any copper coins. were struck by the Urtuķis after the year 625, when the Seljuki and Ayyubi type of silver coin came into use among them: for it is well known that from about the year 625 of the Flight the Urtukis struck at Maridin silver coins exactly resembling those of the Seljukis of

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Rūm, and others, also, resembling those of the Ayyubis. It is greatly to be hoped that Dr. Karabacek may be induced to perfect his ingenious and valuable theory by a second article on the subject, elucidating the few points I have touched upon.

§ 4. NAMES, SURNAMES, AND TITLES, OF THE URTUĶĪ PRINCES WHO STRUCK COINS.

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Sukman (written with on the coins, but in the MSS.).

.Timurtash تمرتاش

.Ortak-Arslan أرتق أرسلان

Yuluk-Arslan, or Būluk-, or Būlūķ-Arslān

b. Arabic.

.Ghazi غازي

Mahmud.

.Modud مودود

Mohammad.

c. Tatar-Arabic.

.Il-Ghazi إيل غازي

2. SURNAMES.

a. Patronymic Surnames.

.Abu-Bekr of Khartapirt أبوبكر
.Nejm-ed-din Alpi of Maridin أبو المظفر

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: Defender of the State and K. Mahmud ناصر الدنيا والدين

the Religion.

Defender of the Religion.

M. Urtuk-Arslan.

K. Maḥmūd :

M. Urtuk-Arslan.

M. Alpi.

ناصر الدين

.Star of the Religion نجم الدين

:Defender of the Prince of I. Mohammad نصير أمير المؤمنين

the Faithful.

.Defender of the Imam نصير الإمام

Kh. Abu-Bekr.

K. Moḥammad.

Defender of the Religion. K. Moḥammad.

M-Urtukis of Maridin. K-Urtukis of Keyfa.

Kh-Urtukis of Khartapirt.

Or Cynosure. The reader will remember Milton's use of this word:

"Towers and battlements it sees

Bosomed high in tufted trees,

Where perhaps some beauty lies,

The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes."

L'ALLEGRO, 77.

On all coins that I have seen the form of the word precludes

the possibility of its being

or je as some would read. rjes

3. TITLES.

.Shah شاه

This title occurs only on the coins of Kutb-ed-din Īl-Ghāzī 11. of Māridin in the forms Shāh of Diyar-bekr.

.King ملک

In accordance with the rules of agreement in Arabic, this title always has the definitive J when followed by an adjective, but when followed by a substantive in the relative case it is without the definitive. It is used, on the Urtuki coins, in connection with the following adjectives and substantives.

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king of Diyār-bekr. M. Alpī; Īl-Ghāzī; Yūluķ

Arslan; Urtuk-Arslan.

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