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Coins of the Khwarazmshah Era (Ismoilov)

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نقود عهد الخوارزمشاهيين (إسماعيلوف)

Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov's study (Bukhara 2025) of the coins of the Afrighids, Ma'munids, Shah Malik and the Anushtegins in Khwarazm from the eighth century to the Mongol invasion, built on an album of 237 coin types 1 2.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Persia & Central Asia

Trade and financePolitics, governance and authority

Summary

Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) ("Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th to early 13th century") is an Uzbek-language study by Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, issued by Ma'mun University in Uzbekistan and published by Durdona in Bukhara in 2025, 236 pages, with the historian G'aybulla Boboyorov as responsible editor. 3 1 Its subject is the coinage of the rulers who bore the title "Khwarazmshah" from the coming of Islam to Khwarazm to the Mongol invasion: the Afrighids, the Ma'munids, the Oghuz ruler Shah Malik and the Anushtegins. 1

Method

The author calls coins "the mirror of their age": they cannot replace manuscripts for the detail of events, but unlike texts they are never altered; their metal shows a state's economic strength, their legends its political situation, their images its customs. 4 He worked mostly from photographs of coins held in museums and private collections abroad, since most of them have left Uzbekistan. 1 5 In his conclusion he reports analysing more than ten thousand specimens and isolating 237 types: 38 Afrighid, 7 of the Oghuz rulers, 3 Samanid, 12 of the Tahirids and their governors, 35 Ma'munid, 7 of Shah Malik and 135 Anushtegin. 6 Legends are transcribed from Arabic and Old Khwarezmian and explained in Uzbek, and the typology follows Russian scholars such as Vainberg and Kuznetsov. 5 7

Structure

  • Chapter 1: the coins in written sources, and the history of their study and archaeological discovery. 8 9 10
  • Chapter 2: historical analysis of the coins: the Afrighids (from scan p. 32), the Ma'munids (from p. 69), and the monetary system of the Anushtegins (from p. 95). 7 11 12
  • Chapter 3: the mints (from p. 158), the inscriptions (from p. 173), the political situation (from p. 188), and economic life and trade (from p. 212). 13 14 15 16
  • Conclusion and bibliography. 6 17 Plates of the types, with weight, diameter, mint and date, are inserted between the chapters. 18

Main findings

  • On the strength of a fals struck at Jurjaniyya in 356 AH/967 in the name of Muhammad ibn Ali, the author argues that Ma'munid rule began around 967, not with Ma'mun ibn Muhammad after 992, and that Jurjaniyya was detached from the Afrighids between 959 and 967 as an emirate set up by the Samanids. 19
  • He counts Shah Malik the Oghuz, who struck coins as Khwarazmshah in 1041–1043, as a fifth house to bear the title after the Afrighids, Ma'munids, Altuntashids and Anushtegins. 19
  • He identifies four periods in which no coins were struck in the name of Khwarazm's rulers: 818–893 under caliphal prohibition, 893–959 under the Samanids, 1014–1042 under the Ghaznavids, and 1041–1129 under the Seljuks. 20
  • He lists 51 cities and fortresses where Khwarazmshah coins were struck, in Khwarazm, Transoxiana, Khurasan, Iran, Pakistan and Georgia. 21
  • Citing al-Zamakhshari's Muqaddimat al-adab, he notes that pre-Islamic Khwarazmian silver coins were called tazija. 21

Place in its field

The editor's foreword says the book fills a gap in Uzbek-language works on Khwarazmian numismatics for general readers, and offers a new reading of Ma'munid history through the coins. 22 2 5

Connections

Explore the connections

About
Afrighids (Khwarazmshahs of Kath)· Ma'munids (Khwarazmshahs of Jurjaniyya)· Anushtegin dynasty· Coinage of Islamic Khwarazm (8th–13th century)
Mentions
Abu al-Fawaris Shah Malik, Khwarazmshah· Kath (Khwarazm)· Jurjaniyya (Gurgandj)

People and things also explored

Afrighids (Khwarazmshahs of Kath)· Ma'munids (Khwarazmshahs of Jurjaniyya)· Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Khwarazmshah· Ma'mun ibn Muhammad, Khwarazmshah· Muhammad ibn Ali, emir of Jurjaniyya· Kath (Khwarazm)· Qur'anic inscriptions on Islamic coins· Abu al-Abbas Ma'mun ibn Ma'mun, Khwarazmshah

Sources

  1. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 3
  2. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 7
  3. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 2
  4. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 8
  5. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 12
  6. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 222
  7. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 32
  8. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 4
  9. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 13
  10. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 21
  11. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 69
  12. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 95
  13. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 158
  14. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 173
  15. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 188
  16. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 212
  17. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 227
  18. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 52
  19. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 224
  20. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 225
  21. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 223
  22. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 6
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Coins of the Khwarazmshah Era (Ismoilov)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/xorazmshohlar-davri-tangalari/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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Afrighids (Khwarazmshahs of Kath)

Local dynasty that ruled Khwarazm from Kath with the title Khwarazmshah, founded by Afrigh according to al-Biruni, and ended when its last ruler, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad, was killed in 385/995.