Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018): 169-200 The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA New York University in Madrid (almudena.ariza@nyu.edu) 1. Introduction In the last few years, significant headway has been made in the expansion of our knowledge regarding the Ḥammūdid caliphate established in al-Andalus in the first half of the 5th/11th century. Major new developments have stemmed chiefly from numismatic studies, which have reported new coin hoards and the emergence of new typologies while offering reassessments, published or unpublished, of the major public and private collections. In light of the literary sources, the analysis of the numismatic material has opened the door to new readings, interpretations, and valuations. It has also created space for new hypotheses, which have directly impacted the historical knowledge we have about the Ḥammūdid dynasty thus far. Analysis of the coinage has made it possible to debunk Abstract Of the caliphates of the Islamic West, the rule of the shortest duration was that of the Ḥammūdids (407/1016–446/1055). The Ḥammūdids, as descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad and members of the Idrīsid branch that had ruled in al-Maghrib al-Aqṣā (170/786–375/985) before succumbing to Umayyad-Fāṭimid rivalry, claimed the inheritance of the Umayyad caliphate after its breakdown and were paid allegiance by given Taifa kingdoms. The paper discusses how the scarcity of texts dealing with the Ḥammūdid period can be compensated for by close consideration of the numismatic evidence. Building upon the author’s previous studies, published in Spanish, that discussed new coin hoards and new typologies and offered reassessments of the major public and private collections, this contribution offers an overview of the present-day state of the art including new readings, interpretations and valuations. It also debunks commonly accepted historiographical claims concerning the Ḥammūdid coinage and its political and religious implications, and sheds new light on the alleged ‘Shīʽism’ of the Ḥammūdids. Without the study of this particular caliphal experience, the conception of the caliphate in the Islamic West cannot be fully understood. mailto:almudena.ariza%40nyu.edu?subject= 170 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) commonly accepted historiographical claims concerning not only the Ḥammūdid coinage itself, but also its political and religious implications. Ḥammūdid politics raises key questions regarding the institutional history of the caliphate. These questions, neglected for far too long, relate directly to the crisis of the Cordovan Umayyad caliphal state. The new perspectives derived from this study1 show how the Ḥammūdid caliphate, usually forgotten, considered marginal, or regarded as just another Taifa kingdom, had a specific relevance. During the first half of the 5th/11th century, the Ḥammūdids—who were descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad and legitimate caliphs of al-Andalus—made use of their caliphal sovereignty in a variety of ways that influenced the political life of the Taifa kingdoms that were organized according to their fidelity either to the Ḥammūdid or to the Umayyad caliph. The Ḥammūdids were recognized not only in many areas of Andalusi territory, but also in the Maghreb, where the legitimacy of the Taifa kingdoms and that of the alleged Hishām [II] proclaimed as caliph in Seville were not recognized. Without the study of the Ḥammūdids, the conception of the caliphate in the Islamic West cannot be fully understood. This paper summarizes, as thoroughly as is possible, these developments which present the Ḥammūdid dynasty in a new light. 2. The Ḥammūdid Dynasty: Ascent to Power2 2.1. ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd, Caliph Sulaymān’s Ḥājib? The first references to the Ḥammūdids in the textual sources date to 400/1010: ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and seized Ceuta on behalf of the Cordovan Umayyad caliph Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn3. Three years later, ʿAlī was the qāʾid of the ʿAlawī faction (firqa) of Sulaymān’s army during the storming of Cordova. As compensation for Alī’s help, Sulaymān handed over to ʿAlī and his brother, al-Qāsim, the rule of the Maghreb,4 by putting the former at the helm of Ceuta and the latter in charge of Tangier and Asilah. 1. This paper is a summary of the contributions (in Spanish) made by A. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes de al-Andalus (V/XI). E-prints, Complutense University of Madrid. Vol. 1, 2010 http://eprints.ucm.es/11196/ and A. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán. Las emisiones monetales a nombre de los califas ḥammūdíes de al-Andalus (Grenoble, 2015). They are at present the only available comprehensive studies regarding the history and monetary issuances of the Ḥammūdid Caliphate. In them, the contributions of the sporadic studies published since the 1877 work by Codera—the only previous historical-numismatic study about this dynasty—are critically analyzed. At the same time, the coin hoards and the abundant numismatic materials preserved in the main private and public collections (with a total of 2.461 exemplars) are systematically studied within the context provided by the textual sources. 2. A genealogical chart is offered at the end of the article. 3. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III = Kitāb al-Bayān al-Mughrib fī akhbār al-Andalus wa-al-Maghrib, ed. E. Lévi- Provençal and G. S. Colin. 2 vols. (Leiden, 1948-1951), vol. II, 96-99. Spanish trans. by F. Maíllo Salgado, La caída del Califato de Córdoba y los Reyes de Taifas (al-Bayān al-Mugrib) (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1993), 90-92. 4. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 114; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 103-104. http://eprints.ucm.es/11196/ Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 171 In that same year, 403/1013, the name of ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd appeared for the first time on Caliph Sulaymān’s coins.5 These coins seem to attest to the fact that, during his time in Ceuta, ʿAlī was appointed as al-Mustaʿīn’s chamberlain (ḥājib). If we consider the origin and evolution of the appearance of proper names on caliphal coins in al-Andalus,6 in conjunction with the evolution of his name’s location on the coin dies (it shifts from the location once reserved for the governors of the Maghreb to the most prestigious space occupied by the great ḥājibs, Jaʿfar al-Ṣiqlabī al-Nāṣirī and Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir Almanzor), we can hypothesize that not only did ʿAlī appear on the coins in his role as ruler of the Maghreb, but also as Sulaymān’s ḥājib; a hypothesis that could very well be validated by the sources7 (Fig. 1). The fact that gold coinage was struck at the Ceuta mint is also quite significant. Indeed, the remaining issues that appeared under the authority of allegedly independent princes who recognized Caliph Sulaymān as imām during the fitna were coined at the generic al-Andalus mint.8 Furthermore, the fact that the latter are made of silver, as opposed to gold, which was used to strike Ḥammūdid coins, makes the preferential status that ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd enjoyed over the other local powers of the time clear. If resorting to the generic al-Andalus mint was a clear sign of submission,9 it could well be said that the arrival of the Madīnat Sabta mint was the symbolic materialization of a certain degree of independence, 5. These are dinars (type Ariza Pre1.) and dirhams (type Ariza Pre2-Pre8) struck in the name of Caliph Sulaymān at the Ceuta Mint in 403, 404 and 405: Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 83-90. The above-mentioned typologies as well as the others in this work refer the new typological catalog on Ḥammūdid coinage in Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 405-437. 6. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 80-83. 7. “When Sulaymān and the Berbers seized Cordova, in this their second rule, both the ḥājib and the vizier were theirs; as it was Sulaymān who established the Berber reign in Cordova”: Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 114; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 104. See also Una descripción anónima de al-Andalus, ed. and trans. L. Molina (Madrid,1983), 213. Along the lines of the narrative, they could refer to ʿAlī and al-Qāsim as ḥājib and vizier, respectively. 8. Except for those struck by al-Muʿizz : A. Vives y Escudero, Monedas de las dinastías arábigo-españolas (Madrid, 1893), 495. Concerning the North African coinages displaying the name of Hishām [II] see the references cited in Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 96, note 357. 9. Vives y Escudero, Monedas de las dinastías arábigo-españolas, XXXII. Figure 1. Type Ariza Pre.5.1, Dirham, 405, Madīnat Sabta. Tonegawa Collection. 172 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) a degree greater than what can be discerned from the written sources. This idea is in accordance with Acién’s prior statement about the fact that ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd’s actual power was greater than what was then believed10; and it was precisely within this said power that his hypothetical ḥājib status resided.11 Additionally, the appearance of the Ḥammūdid nasab on both sides of a coin in one of ʿAlī’s typologies (type Ariza Pre8), in one linked to ʿAlī’s name and, in the other, devoid of any ism, suggests that the latter is a reference to his brother al-Qāsim, who would thus have been portrayed for the first time on a coin die (Fig. 2). Al-Qāsim, who was in charge of Tangier and Asilah, was in the Maghreb with his brother at the time. His presence alongside him on the coins supports another argument in favor of the notion that Alī and al-Qāsim could have been ḥājib and vizier, respectively, and would be depicted as such on this coin typology’s die. 2.2. Ceuta, a Ḥammūdid City From the moment ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd was appointed governor of Ceuta, the Maghrebi city became an essential stronghold in Ḥammūdid politics. The city, let us not forget, had once been part of the territories controlled by the Idrīsid ʿUmar,12 an ancestor of the Ḥammūdids. 10. M. Acién Almansa, “Los ḥammūdíes, califas legítimos de Occidente en el siglo XI,” Actas del Congreso de Toledo a Huesca. Sociedades medievales en transición a finales del siglo XI (1080-1100) (Zaragoza, 1998), 54. 11. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 96. The fact that he minted gold coinage in the name of Sulaymān, as he would later do it on behalf of Hishām [II], does not imply, as has been claimed in Acién Almansa, “Los ḥammūdíes,” 53-54, and M. D. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí y el califato en el s. XI (Málaga, 2008), 35, that he had used the caliphal coining prerogative before he was proclaimed as caliph. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 93, 75-79. 12. Ibn al-Khatīb, Kitāb Aʿmāl al-Aʿlām, ed. Evariste Lévi-Provençal (Beirut, 1956), 203-207; Spanish trans. by R. Castrillo (Madrid, 1983), 124-125. As regards additional sources on this matter, see D. Eustache, Corpus des Dirhams Idrīsites et Contemporains. Collection de la Banque du Maroc et autres collections mondiales, publiques Figure 2. Type Ariza Pre.8, Dirham, 405, Madīnat Sabta. Benito de los Mozos Collection Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 173 Ceuta would not only become the “Doorway to the Strait,” but also play a major role as the seat of the heirs who would inherit the rule of the Maghreb.13 Furthermore, it was ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd in his role as governor of Ceuta, who, in the year 403/1013, opened the first mint there. The original mint remained active throughout the entire Ḥammūdid era and became key to the dynasty’s monetary issues and policies. Although there are no textual references, one must attribute the motivation to open the mint to Caliph Sulaymān’s need to pay the Maghrebi troops. As is generally known, during the Umayyad period, the caliphs of Cordova sent massive amounts of currency to the Maghreb to cover the costs of their alliances with the Berber tribes. Consequently, it is sensible to believe that, during the civil war into which Caliph Sulaymān was dragged, it likely became difficult for him to send money to the Maghreb and make the necessary payments to his main allies, the Berbers. Thus, his lieutenant in the Maghreb, and his then right-hand man, ʿAlī, likely opened the new mint so they could pay the Berber troops directly. These were the troops which, in accordance with Arabic textual sources, he was enlisting for war at the time.14 Through them, the coinage struck in Ceuta would arrive in the Iberian Peninsula.15 The huge flow of Ceuta-struck coins in al-Andalus takes on enormous importance if we consider that an equally abundant presence of Maghrebi currency in the Iberian Peninsula has never been confirmed. What is more, not even during the course of the Ḥammūdid era were other North African mints so richly represented in peninsular coin hoards. This new development could well be the sign of a much more direct policy pursued by the Ḥammūdid caliphate, than that once pursued by the Umayyad dynasty in the Maghreb.16 2.3. ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd, the Legitimate Heir of Hishām [II] The already powerful ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd withdrew his allegiance and, in the year 405/1014- 1015, revolted against Caliph Sulaymān, revealing an alleged letter in which Hishām [II] presumably offered him, in exchange for helping him defeat Sulaymān, the opportunity to be his successor in the caliphate.17 As heir, (walī al-ʿahd), he would appear on the coins et privées (Rabat, 1970-1971), 33, note 17. Let us bear in mind that Ceuta was within the sphere of influence of al-Andalus since it was conquered by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [III] al-Nāṣir in the year 319/931. Cf. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān (reed. Beirut, 1983), I, 200-204, II, 204. 13. ʿAlī, Yaḥyā, Idrīs [I], Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā and his son, Muḥammad [I], Muḥammad [II] (b. Idrīs [II]). Except for al-Qāsim, who had not been designated as heir, Yaḥyā [II] b. Idrīs (“the insurgent”) e Idrīs [II], who may or may not have been designated as heir (see infra), but of whom there is no record of his passing through Ceuta. Vallvé already stressed the importance of the heir’s residing in Ceuta: J. Vallvé Bermejo, “Suqqūt al-Bargawāṭī, rey de Ceuta,” Al-Andalus XXVIII (1963): 171-209. 14. Una descripción anónima, 214. 15. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 69. 16. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 69-70. 17. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 114-116; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 104-106. 174 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) issued in the name of Caliph Hishām [II]18 (Fig. 3, 4, 5). To some, these issues are proof of the existence of the letter. To others, they are nothing but evidence of its fabrication. This is a central point in the matter of the much-discussed legitimacy of the Ḥammūdid caliphate.19 At any rate, what these issues show is that all those who rose with ʿAlī against Sulaymān accepted his status as heir. Although his three main allies, the ʿĀmirid, Khayrān al-Siqlabī, and the Ṣanhāja Berbers, Zāwī b. Zīrī, and Ḥabbūs b. Māksan b. Zīrī, expected to find Hishām [II] alive, they knew that ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd was to rule after him.20 Once on the peninsula, ʿAlī captured Malaga, and the coins issued at the al-Andalus mint in the name of Hishām [II], dated 406/1015–1016, must have been the first ones struck in Malaga by the Ḥammūdids21 (Fig. 3, 4). 18. Issues of the years 405/1014-1015, 406/1015-1016and 407/1016-1017, both gold and silver, from the al-Andalus and Madīnat Sabta mints (type Ariza Pre9.1-8). 19. Cf. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 117-124. 20. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 90-92. 21. A. Ariza Armada, “Monedas andalusíes de Málaga,” Mālaqa, entre Malaca y Málaga (Málaga, 2009) 105–107; A. Ariza Armada, “De la legitimidad ḥammūdí a la legitimidad almorávide: la moneda de taifas (siglo V/XI),” Revista internacional Omni, Special Issue1, Las monedas hispano-musulmanas (2014), 116. Concerning other evaluations of these issues cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 90-92. Figure 3. Type Ariza Pre9.3. Dinar, 406, al-Andalus. Tonegawa Collection. Figure 4. Type Ariza Pre9.4. Dirham, 406, al-Andalus. Tonegawa Collection Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 175 3. The Ḥammūdid Caliphate 3.1. ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd (r. 407/1016 to 408/1018), a Shīʿī Caliph? In the year 407/1016, ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd, descendant of Idrīs [II],22 the founder of the Idrīsid dynasty, from the Banū ʿUmar branch, was proclaimed caliph in the Bāb al-Sudda. The event occurred at the citadel (alcazar) in Cordova, a symbol of the caliphate’s sovereignty, which would only reassert the legitimacy of his proclamation.23 He was the first non-Marwānid caliph of al-Andalus, the first Hāshimid ruler to bear the title of imām,24 which could have been decisive in the development of the ensuing Sharīfism.25 ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd cleverly fused the Umayyad Sunni tradition and its Shīʿī counterpart which favored his acceptance as caliph, both in Sunni al-Andalus and in the Maghreb, where Shīʿīsm is likely to have been even more influential. Thus, on the one hand, he took the titles of al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh and Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh,26 laqabs that had been used before him by the first Umayyad caliph of Cordova and the tenth ʿAbbāsid caliph. In doing so, not only did he express his will to align himself with the caliphate of Cordova to gain acceptance in the rest of al-Andalus,27 but also equated his own dynasty with the Umayyad dynasty, and himself, as the first ʿAlid caliph, with the first Umayyad caliph. This allowed him to disassociate himself from any suspicion of radical Shīʿīsm, while expressing, in 22. The verisimilitude of Ḥammūdid ancestry has been questioned by D. J. Wasserstein, The Caliphate in the West. An Islamic Political Institution in the Iberian Peninsula (Oxford, 1993), 50 and ss., but as we will see, ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd’s Shīʿī inclinations seem to confirm his ʿAlid origin. 23. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, vol. 1, 169-170. 24. The Idrīsid protocol reserved the title for the ʿ Abbāsid caliphs of Baghdad. Cf. A. Ariza Armada, “Leyendas monetales, iconografía y legitimación en el califato ḥammūdí. Las emisiones de ʿ Alī b. Ḥammūd del año 408/1017- 1018,” Al-Qanṭara XXV, 1 (2004), 209. 25. Ariza Armada, “Leyendas monetales, iconografía y legitimación,” 209-211. 26. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 122; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 110; Ibn Bassām. Al-Dhakhīrah fī maḥāsin ahl al-Jazīrah, ed. I. ʿAbbās, 8 vols. (Beirut, 1979-1981), Spanish transl. in M. D. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí y el califato en el siglo XI (Málaga, 2008), para. 35; Ibn al-Athīr. Al-Kāmil fī al-taʾrīkh, French trans. E. Fagnan, Annales du Maghreb et de l’Espagne (Alger, 1898), IX, 271. 27. P. Guichard, De la Expansión Árabe a la Reconquista: Esplendor y fragilidad de al-Andalus (Granada, 2000), 120. Figure 5. Type Ariza Pre9.5. Dinar, 406 Madīnat Sabta. Tonegawa Collection. 176 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) reference to the ʿAbbāsid caliph, the Shīʿa tendencies attributed to him by the literature and the assertion of his noble Fāṭimid lineage.28 On the other hand, while maintaining the continuity of Umayyad issues by continuing with the previous standards, he developed a legitimating iconographical program, laden with connotations to Shīʿīsm and, as we shall see,29 of clear propitiatory value of a magical-religious nature. The dual (religious-ideological) overtones of his laqabs; his superstitious nature30; the ensemble of characters he allowed into his Cordovan court (of Muwallad origin and Berbers); his appointment of a Shuʿubī vizier (Ibn Garcia),31 chief judiciary and prayer leader; the tribute to his Fāṭimid origin and his denomination as a Shīʿī in the laudatory poems that Ibn Darrāj al-Qasṭallī, Ibn Ḥannāṭ and Ibn Māʾ al-Samāʾ dedicated to him;32 and the iconography displayed on his coinages suggest that the first Ḥammūdid was more heterodox than what has thus far been historiographically accepted. Amidst the campaign against the Umayyad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [IV], who had revolted in Sharq al-Andalus, ʿAlī was murdered in the bathroom of his alcazar, probably in Jaén (408/1018), as Christian chronicles attested, and not in Cordova, as has been traditionally believed. From there, his corpse was transferred to the capital of al-Andalus where it was presented to his brother al-Qāsim, who would succeed him as head of the caliphate.33 The first Ḥammūdid was not buried in the rawḍa, at the alcazar in Cordova, where, starting with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [I], all of the Umayyads had been buried; instead his body was moved to Ceuta, where a mosque was built to house his tomb. Perhaps this can be interpreted as a sign of the will of the Ḥammūdid dynasty to distinguish itself from the Umayyad dynasty, in an attempt at dynastic vindication.34 It would occur again with his son Idrīs [I] who would also be buried in Ceuta.35 28. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, vol. 1, 165-166. 29. This question is developed in the epigraph 3.2. “The Ḥammūdid Iconographical Program.” 30. Regarding the superstitious nature of ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd see, for example, Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 123; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 110-111. About the assessment of this fact in relation to the iconography of his coins with fishes from the year 408/1017–1018, see Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, vol. 1: 194-195; Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 109. 31. Cf. F. de la Granja, “Ibn García, cadí de los califas ḥammūdíes. Nuevos datos para el estudio de la šuʽūbiyya en al-Andalus,” Al-Andalus XXX (1956), 63-78 (repr. in Estudios de historia de al-Andalus. 21-39. Madrid, 1999). From a more general perspective: S. B. Savant, “Naming Shuʿūbīs,” in A. Korangy, W. M. Thackston, R. P. Mottahedeh and W. Granara (eds.). Essays in Islamic Philology, History, and Philosophy (Berlin/Boston, 2016). 32. Regarding his court and administration cf. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, vol. 1, 177-186. 33. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, vol. 1: 174-175. Rosado Llamas has indicated that the Arabic baths of the palace of Villardompardo are called “the baths of King Ali,” which could be a further indication of the verisimilitude of the information provided by the Christian source; Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 115. 34. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, vol. 1, 175-176. 35. Crónica anónima de los Reyes de Taifas, Spanish trans. by F. Maíllo Salgado (Madrid, 1991), 18. Data collected by L. Seco de Lucena, Los ḥammūdíes, señores de Málaga y Algeciras (Málaga, 1955), 34. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 177 3.2. The Ḥammūdid Iconographical Program On his coins, the first Ḥammūdid caliph initiated a legitimizing graphic program of a prophylactic nature, which was maintained throughout the issuances of his son, Yaḥyā, and his grandson, Idrīs [II], even though the latter, as we shall see, had to make attempts to distance himself from anything that would create the suspicion of Shīʿīsm during his second period. Consequently, ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd introduced the fish symbol on his Ceuta currency (type Ariza ʿA4.1-3) as a symbolic reference to the prophet Moses and to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, or even to al-Khaḍir. This symbol legitimized him as a wise and just caliph, as these were the symbolic referents of the latter36 (Fig. 6). Moreover, especially on the Ceuta coinages, we find the second iconographic element: the proliferation of stars (Fig. 6, 7). Although these were already linked to the Umayyad tradition, they would now acquire a new connotation in connection with Shīʿīsm, which had to do with their protective character (amān) over his house members (ahl al-bayt), and over his bloodline, which was attributed to them by the Prophet.37 The Ḥammūdid caliph, descendant of the “sons of Fāṭima,” was thus legitimized. 36. Cf. Ariza Armada, “Leyendas monetales, iconografía y legitimación,” 203-231; S. Peña Martín and M. Vega Martín, “The Qurʾānic symbol of the fish on Ḥammūdid coins: al-Haḍir and the Holy Geography of the Straits of Gibraltar,” Al-Andalus Magreb 13 (2006), 269-284; Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 107-110. 37. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 117-118. Figure 6. Type Ariza ʿA4.3 Dirham, 408, Madīnat Sabta. A.N.S. 1928.999.112. Figure 7. Type Ariza ʿA4.2. Dirham, 407, Madīnat Sabta. Tonegawa Collection. 178 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) His son, Yaḥyā, in addition to resorting to the stars, introduced the octogram symbol (type Ariza Ya2) (Fig. 8) to the coins. This symbol, besides having legitimizing and propitiatory value, which is closely linked to the symbology of the hexagram, can also be identified with the Rubʿ al-Ḥizb. Thus, it made symbolic reference to the “Party of God,” to which the Ḥammūdids belonged as noble descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad.38 Yaḥyā also made use of the symbology of a series of isolated letters (wāw and hāʾ), which, once other possibilities have been ruled out, could very well represent numbers (types Ariza Ya5.1-9, Ya6.1-5) (Fig. 9). Their numerical values, according to the Maghrebi abjad, would be six and eight respectively, which, given their high level of religious significance and their obvious connection with the hexagram and the octogram, could well be regarded as propitiatory value symbols.39 After Yaḥyā, his son, Idrīs [II], would also resort to the octogram (type Ariza IdII10), thus making his intent to carry on with his father’s graphic program abundantly clear. This can be understood as an additional element of legitimacy (Fig. 10). As for his own additions, Idrīs [II] added the hexagon to the coin dies (type Ariza IdII10), thus demarcating the legends in the area (Fig. 10), a novelty on both coinages from al-Andalus as well as from the Maghreb that would not be used again in al-Andalus, but that was concurrently used by the Buyids, a 38. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 178-182. 39. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 184-194. Figure 8. Type Ariza Ya2. Dinar, 413, al-Andalus. Tonegawa Collection Figure 9. Type Ariza Ya6.2. Dirham, 416, Madīnat Sabta. Tonegawa Collection. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 179 Shīʿī dynasty which also ruled over a Sunni majority. Another geometric resource of great symbolic value that Idrīs [II] added to the caliphal currency was the hexagram or “Seal of Solomon” (types Ariza IdII3 and Ariza IdII1640), a monetary symbol whose origin, both in the East and in the Maghreb, had a strong pro-ʿAlīd component (Fig. 11). The symbolic reference to the prophet Solomon conferred a magical and protective quality to the coins, and, in turn, legitimized not only Idrīs [II] as a righteous, wise and just caliph, much like the king-prophet himself, but, in a sense, the coin issues themselves as well.41 Through this monetary symbology, numismatics clearly shows the differentiation of this family branch, which would confront the other branches of the dynasty in the struggle for power (Table 2). The fact that it is precisely this branch that is related to the figure of Sawājjāt al-Bargawāṭī42—known also as Suqqūt—a client of the Ḥammūdids of well-known Shīʿī tendencies, also strengthens the idea that these three caliphs could have been even 40. Cf. Type Ariza IdII.16 in A. Ariza Armada, “Nueva tipología con hexagrama a nombre del califa ḥammūdí Idrīs [II] al-ʿĀlī,” Numisma 258 (2014), 207-210. 41. The hexagram as a numismatic symbol in its origin and first development is related to pro-ʿAlīd territories or dynasties, and is linked to Shīʿī legends, even if though it was later used by Sunni powers and/or dynasties as well as Shīʿī ones: Ariza Armada, “Iconografía y legitimación en el califato ḥammūdí. El símbolo del hexagrama,” Numisma 254, LX (2010), 61-83; Ariza Armada, “Nueva tipología con hexagrama,” 207-210; Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 267-269. 42. Vallvé Bermejo, “Suqqūt al-Bargawāṭī.” Figure 10. Type Ariza IdII10.1. Dirham, 446, al-Andalus. Tonegawa Collection. Figure 11. Type Ariza IdII3.1 Dirham, 438, al-Andalus. Tonegawa Collection 180 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) more influenced by Shīʿīsm than what historiography has conceded. In addition, the loyalty shown by Suqqūt to ʿAlī, his son Yaḥyā and his grandson Idrīs [II] could not only have been a matter of personal fidelity, but could also have been influenced by a religious component.43 3.3. The Recognition of the Ḥammūdid Caliphate in the Maghreb The caliphate of ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd was widely recognized in the Maghreb. Not only does the testimony of literary sources indicate that it was recognized in Tangier, Ceuta and even Fez, but the recently published dinar coined at the Oran mint (Madīnat Wahrān)44 in the year 407/1016–1017 (Fig. 12) indicates not only the continuity of caliphal recognition, from the Umayyads to the Ḥammūdids, but that the Ḥammūdid caliphate enjoyed far greater recognition than what had thus far been believed. Despite the silence of the chronicles, the appearance of al-Manṣūr’s name in this typology of Oran would be the numismatic testimony of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s recognition of ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd’s caliphate.45 This would mean that, on this date, a young ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was in control of the city of Oran, a position of power in the Maghreb, which could have favored his later being appointed by the ʿAmirids and taking a leading role at the head of Valencia.46 Furthermore, although it was omitted in the chronicles, numismatics also demonstrates that recognition of the Ḥammūdid caliphate continued in Fez after ʿAlī’s death in his successors, his brother, al-Qāsim, and his son, Yaḥyā. Al-Muʿizz b. Zīrí, lord of Fez (391–416/ 1000–1026),47 recognized al-Qāsim during his first caliphate, issuing currency in his name, at least in the year 410/1019-1020. Therefore, given the likelihood that Yaḥyā crossed over to the 43. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 236-237. 44. S. Gaspariño, “Nota sobre un nuevo dinar de “Ali b. Hammud,” Omni 1 (2009), 71-76; S. Gaspariño, “Una nueva ceca Ḥammūdī: Oran,” Omni 7 (2013), 142-156. 45. As he will later recognize the sovereignty of Caliph al-Qāsim by sending him beautiful presents and mentioning him in the khutbah, in exchange for which the latter bestowed the title of al-Muʾtamin Dhū al-Sābiqatayn on him: Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 164-165; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 142-143. 46. See the various theories concerning this specimen in Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 113-114. 47. Or in 417: Ibn Khaldūn, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l’Afrique septentrionales, French trans. Le Baron de Slane, 4 vols. (Paris, 1925-1934, repr. Paris, 1999), t. 3, 251. Figure 12. Type Ariza ʿA7.1 Dinar, 407, Madīnat Wahrān. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 181 Iberian Peninsula in this year, and that this issue does not include the name of any heir, the support of al-Muʿizz for the caliphate of al-Qāsim at the time of his nephew Yaḥyā’s manifest rebellion seems evident. To date, we have no numismatic evidence of al-Muʿizz’s political position during the confrontation of both caliphs (Table 1), nor do we know whether or not he came to recognize the sovereignty of Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī during al-Qāsim’s second caliphate. However, when al-Qāsim left Cordova, in 414/1023, for the second and last time, al-Muʿizz recognized Yaḥyā before the end of that same year, during which he was still acting as caliph in Malaga.48 Today we know he was also recognized and had coins minted in his name by Ḥamāma b. al-Muʿizz b. ʿAṭiyya and Muʿanṣar b. Muʿizz, who must have briefly had control of Fez between the death of his cousin, al-Muʿizz b. Zīri, and the rise to power of his brother, Ḥamāma b. al-Muʿizz.49 But there is not only numismatic evidence for the recognition of the caliphate of the first three Ḥammūdids in the Maghreb: Oued Laou (Wādī Lāw) would also strike coins in the name of Muḥammad al-Mahdī, which proves the extent of the caliphate’s recognition across time.50 After the confrontation between al-Qāsim and Yaḥyā, the consequent rift in the dynasty, and the proclamation of the alleged Hishām [II], the different Berber tribes threw their weight behind rival Ḥammūdid caliphs (Table 1). In the Maghreb, the Maghrāwa tribes, especially the Barghawātas and Banū ʿAṭiyya, supported the dynastic branch represented by the sons of Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī, while the Ghumāra supported the sons of Idrīs [I].51 However, given the monetary evidence, and, as we shall see, problems that the Taifas experienced in receiving silver from the Maghreb, only the legitimacy of the Ḥammūdid caliphate was recognized in the Maghreb, but never the purported legitimacy of the different Taifas or of the supposed caliph Hishām [II], who had risen in Seville. 3.4. Al-Qāsim (r. 408/1018 to 414/1023) vs. Yaḥyā (r. 412/1021 to 427/1035)52 Although ʿAlī al-Nāṣir had, by making it apparent on the coin, appointed his son Yaḥyā as his heir and had also handed over the government of Ceuta to him, the Zanāta Berbers put al-Qāsim, the late caliph’s brother, in power. According to the Bayān, and as recorded by historiography,53 Yaḥyā and his brother Idrīs pretended to recognize al-Qāsim while 48. A. Ariza Armada, “Las emisiones de los Banū ʿ Aṭiyya de Fez a nombre de los califas ḥammūdíes. Soberanía califal y conflictos tribales,” in M. Meouak and C. de la Puente (eds.), Vivir de tal suerte. Homenaje a Juan Antonio Souto Lasala (Cordova, 2014), 66-71; Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 157-159. 49. Ariza Armada, “Las emisiones de los Banū ʿAṭiyya de Fez,” 72-80; Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 205-213. 50. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 311-314. 51. Ariza Armada, “Las emisiones de los Banū ʿAṭiyya de Fez;” Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 205-213, 311-314. 52. The dates given are from their first proclamation until their definitive dismissal or death, respectively, because even when they lost control of Córdoba and no longer received recognition from some of the local powers, they maintained Caliphal dignity and continued to issue coins as such. 53. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 131; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 117. By way of example: A. Delgado y Hernández, Estudios de Numismática Arábigo-Hispana considerada como comprobante de la 182 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) they waited for a timely opportunity to assert their dynastic rights, in exchange for the proclamation of Yaḥyā as heir. Nonetheless, numismatics seems to instead corroborate al-Bakrī’s view, which denies such recognition and in fact entertains the idea that Yaḥyā was never truly recognized by his uncle as heir. That he appeared as such on all the Ceuta issues displaying caliph al-Qāsim’s name,54 whilst he only appeared on some issuances coined at the al-Andalus mint, seems more like a token of support or recognition of Yaḥyā’s inheritance rights offered by local powers in different cities, not an indication of the somewhat overdue expression of such recognition on the part of caliph al-Qāsim. In other words, considering the information we currently have, the issue raised by these monetary issues could only be explained if they had been coined by the local powers that supported Yaḥyā’s succession rights, as cities other than Cordova or Malaga must also have been involved in the minting of the generic al-Andalus coins.55 Furthermore, in the year 409/1018–1019, coinciding with the campaign undertaken by the Umayyad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [IV] al-Murtaḍā and his allies against caliph al-Qāsim,56 Yaḥyā went from appearing as heir on the obverse side of the coins to appearing on the reverse side. Yaḥyā could well have seized upon the moment of crisis in which the caliph found himself to strengthen, through the message sent by the change in his monetary legends, his claim to the right to the caliphate. Moreover, al-Qāsim’s monetary issues reinforce the idea that in order to gain the support of the people of al-Andalus, the new caliph pursued a policy of prudence. For example, he did not introduce any elements that could be related to Shīʿīsm into his currency, despite the fact that he was qualified as Shīʿī to do so according to literary sources,57 and continued to maintain his brother’s court.58 It is true that the expression bi-Llāh, which appears on one of the coin typologies in his name59 (Fig. 13), seems to conflict with this suggested policy of prudence, which included omitting mention of an explicit connection to God in his laqab.60 dominación islámica en la península, ed. A. Canto García and T. Ibrahim (Madrid, 2001), 157; Seco de Lucena, Los ḥammūdíes, 20-21; A. Chejne, Historia de España Musulmana (Madrid, 1980), 51. 54. With the exception of a typology of the year 410 (type Ariza Qā10). 55. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 128-131, 195-199. 56. The Umayyad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān [IV] al-Murtaḍā was supported by the coalition formed by Khayrān, Mundhir b. Yaḥyā al-Tujībī and Sulaymān b. Hūd, with the help of their ally Count Ramon Borrell I of Barcelona and, probably, Mujāhid. 57. Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil, 425; al-Ḍabbī. Bughyat al-multamis fī taʾrīkh rijāl ahl al-Andalus, ed. F. Codera and J. Ribera (Madrid, 1885), I, 50; ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Marrākushī, Kitāb al-muʿjib fī taljīṣ akhbār al-Maghrib, ed. R. Dozy, The History of the Almohades, preceded by a sketch of the history of Spain, from the time of the conquest till the reign of Yúsuf Ibn-Téshufín and of the history of the Almorávides (Leiden, 1881), Spanish transl. A. Huici Miranda (Tetouan, 1955), 43; al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-ʿarab fī funūn al-adab, Spanish transl. by M. Gaspar Remiro, “Historia de los musulmanes de España y África por el-Nuguairi,” Revista del Centro de Estudios Históricos de Granada y su reino VI (1916), 85; al-Ḥumaydī. Jadhwat al-muqtabis fī taʾrīkh ʿulamāʾ al-Andalus, ed. Muḥammad Ibn Tāwīt al-Ṭanjī (Cairo, 1952), Spanish trans. M.D. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí y el califato en el siglo XI (Málaga, 2008), para. 11 indicates that, although he indeed was Shīʿī, he did not state it or impose it on anyone. 58. Cf. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 228-229. 59. Cf. type Ariza Qā25: Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 158-159. 60. Guichard, De la Expansión Árabe a la Reconquista, 121. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 183 Given that these were coined in Fez, perhaps what they show is a lack of prudence on the part of those who recognized him. Following Yaḥyā’s proclamation as caliph in Cordova, al-Qāsim took refuge in Seville (412/1021–413/1023). The absence of news of his time in Seville, according to chroniclers and historiography, seems to show that what was really important at this point was control of the seat of caliphal power, Cordova, since being caliph of Cordova also meant being the ruler of al-Andalus. Nevertheless, from the perspective of power, not being in possession of the capital does not in fact undermine the caliph’s sovereignty. Indeed, evidence seems to indicate that he was even able to mint coins in Seville, thus maintaining his caliphal dignity. It was also in Seville where al-Qāsim must have abandoned the idea of having his son, Ḥasan, succeed him in the caliphate, as it was his other son, Muḥammad, who appeared on the coins as heir from the moment al-Qāsim regained power in Cordova for the second time (413/1023).61 As for Yaḥyā’s allies, it is worth mentioning the Banū Īfran. Although the textual sources say nothing about their political stance while Jaen was occupied by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Mālik, grandson of Almanzor, between 412/1021–1022 and 419/1029, they must have shown their allegiance to Yaḥyā b. Ḥammūd by minting coins in his name. This would explain why they welcomed Yaḥyā’s son, caliph Idrīs [II], years later in Ronda, if for only a few months, after his time in the Maghreb where he waited to recover the caliphate in Malaga.62 3.4.1. Malaga, Capital of the Ḥammūdid Caliphate As his uncle had done before him in Seville, Yaḥyā, in spite of being exiled in Malaga, maintained his caliphal dignity by striking coins on which Madīnat Mālaka appeared as the 61. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 149-150, 152-155. 62. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 232. Figure 13. Type Ariza Qā25.1. Dirham, 410, Madīnat Fās. Tonegawa Collection. 184 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) mint’s name,63 and did so even before finally settling in the city.64 Of these, the coinage of the Malaga mint from the year 416/1025 are most relevant. Not only was this the first time that the name of the Malaga mint appeared on the die of coins struck in al-Andalus,65 but the issues are also the only evidence of Yaḥyā’s first stay in Malaga between 413/1023 and 416/425. These issues must have been coined by the Ḥammūdid caliph in the first eight months of the year, prior to his return to Cordova, and their existence seems to verify that he must have also minted coins in the preceding years at the Dār al-Sikka in Malaga,66 the opening of which reveals, as has been previously underscored by Prieto, the importance that the city would acquire for the dynasty from this moment on.67 Although he briefly returned to Cordova (416/425), Yaḥyā ultimately settled in Malaga, turning it into the Ḥammūdid Dār al-Mamlaka.68 Two months later, Mujāhid and Khayrān, allies of Ḥabbūs b. Māksan, entered the former Umayyad capital, triggering a massacre of Berbers.69 Yaḥyā, Dūnās b. Abī Rūḥ and Aḥmad b. Mūsā managed to escape alive, the latter fleeing to Malaga while ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAṭṭāf al-Īfranī had to remain in Cordova, as the numismatic evidence seems to attest. After the blood bath, the Cordovans ousted the Ḥammūdids. Also, I believe the fact that the latter are referred to as Fāṭimids in the Bayān,70 as opposed to Ḥammūdids, suggests more than mere literary aesthetics; instead, its function seems to be to stress, once again, the Fāṭimid ancestry of the dynasty and highlight both its religious connotation and the consequent threat to Sunni al-Andalus.71 From Malaga, Yaḥyā saw the Cordovan fuqahāʾ revoke his bayʿa, the true legitimating element of a caliph, and abolish the caliphal institution. However, regardless of the legitimacy of this act, the abolition of the caliphate was not fully achieved, since caliphs continued to be recognized in several territories of al-Andalus and the Maghreb. This included the 63. Type Ariza Ya1.3. This issue is the only known case in which the mint’s name appears in the orthographic form Madīnat Mālaka ( ), since it will be later generalized as Mālaqa ( ), as already noted by Prieto: A. Prieto y Vives, Los Reyes de Taifas. Estudio histórico-numismático de los musulmanes españoles en el siglo V de la Hégira (XI de J.C.) (Madrid, 1926), 111. 64. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 177-178. Concerning the issues of the Malaga mint in Islamic times cf. Ariza Armada, “Monedas andalusíes de Málaga.” 65. Malaga had previously been a Visigothic mint. Cf. P. Rodríguez Oliva, “La antigüedad,” Málaga. Historia, t. II (Granada, 1984), 466. 66. Although its location is unknown, it must have been situated within the citadel (alcazaba) of Malaga, of whose time the oldest aulic area is contemporary, especially considering that it appears to have been proven that during this period there already existed a clear dissociation between the alcazaba and the medina. Cf. M. I. Calero Secall and V. Martínez Enamorado, Málaga, ciudad de al-Andalus (Málaga, 1995), 339. 67. Prieto y Vives, Los Reyes de Taifas, 111. 68. Cf. M. I. Calero Secall, “Dos ciudades Ḥammūdíes: Málaga y Ceuta,” Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebráicos XLII-XLIII (1993-1994), 37. 69. See Rosado Llamas’s considerations in this respect, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 143. 70. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 145-146; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 127. The actual term used in the source is khalaʿa (to dismiss, to depose). See on the appellation as Fāṭimids see M. Fierro, “On al-Fāṭimī and al-Fāṭimiyyūn,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 20 (1996), 142. 71. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 248-249. مالقة مالكة مدينة Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 185 Ḥammūdids, and, in Seville, the alleged Hishām II. Numismatics confirms this point, since, from a typological standpoint, there was no significant change in the Ḥammūdid coins of the time. The successive members of the dynasty continued to issue coins of the “caliphal” type. Nevertheless, this does seem to confirm that the disappearance of the Cordovan caliphate, along with the resulting increase in political instability, negatively impacted the production volumes of, at least, the Ḥammūdid silver coin.72 3.4.2. Al-Qāsim’s Last Alliances Al-Qāsim held power in Cordova for the second time for just over seven months before he had to leave the city (414/1023) and face the betrayal of the qāḍī, Ibn ʿAbbād, who refused to accept him in Seville. In spite of this, not only did al-Qāsim have the support of the emir ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz of Valencia, as literary sources indicate, but, thanks to a specimen from 415/1024–1025, we know that al-Qāsim also enjoyed Yaḥyā b. Mundhir al-Tujībi’s recognition. This issue shows that probably from the very beginning of the uprising that would expel al-Qāsim from Cordova, the caliph counted on his support, or at least counted on him in the year 415/1024–1025, in which he appears on the coin die as the caliph’s ḥājib. This, in turn, turned the Taifa of Saragossa into a first-order ally,73 but none of this support could prevent his nephew, Yaḥyā, from besieging him and taking him prisoner in Jerez. Different authors who have dealt with the subject have considered that, since the textual sources seem to date al-Qāsim’s imprisonment in Malaga to the year 414/1023–1024, these issues were carried out while the caliph was already in his nephew’s hands.74 Some will even say that, as he was already a prisoner, the issues were nothing but “feigned obedience”75 or a mere reference to the “least awkward” but powerless caliph.76 To others, they were considered only “a stratagem to disguise the ‘regal’ ambitions of the Banū Tujībī.”77 However, in my opinion, these coinages, which represent at least a theoretical recognition by the Taifa of Saragossa, show that, despite al-Qāsim’s confinement, they did not, at least initially, concede defeat. In addition, the fact that Yaḥyā b. Mundhir issued his own coinage in the following year (416/1025–1026) in the name of imām ʿAbd Allāh (type Prieto 222a), signals that, from the moment that Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd regained power in Cordova following the deposition and escape of Muḥammad [III] al-Mustakfī that same year (416/1025–1026), the Tujībīs abandoned al-Qāsim’s cause, and completely ceased to recognize the Ḥammūdid 72. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 250-253. 73. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 160-161. 74. F. Codera y Zaidín, Francisco. “Estudio crítico sobre la historia y monedas de los Hammudíes de Málaga y Algeciras,” Museo Español de Antigüedades VIII (1877), 440-441; F. Guillén Robles, Málaga musulmana. Sucesos, antigüedades, Ciencias y Letras Malagueñas durante la Edad Media (Málaga, 1880, Repr. Málaga, 1957), 247. 75. Vives y Escudero, Monedas de las dinastías arábigo-españolas, LIV. 76. Prieto y Vives, Los Reyes de Taifas, 125. 77. P. Guichard and B. Soravia, Los reinos de taifas. Fragmentación política y esplendor cultural (Málaga, 2005), 51. 186 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) caliphate. In fact, they even acknowledged the last Umayyad of Cordova, Hishām [III],78 as the numismatic evidence indicates.79 3.5. Idrīs [I] (r. 427/1035 to 430–431/1039) Idrīs b. ʿAlī was at the helm of the government of Ceuta when his brother, Caliph Yaḥyā al-Muʿtalī, died during the Battle of Carmona (427/1035). Although, according to Ibn ʿIdhārī, Yaḥyā had designated his youngest son, Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā, as his heir, “his paternal uncle, Idrīs b. ʿAlī forestalled him.”80 To date, the belief has been held that the young age of his nephews, Idrīs and Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā, was a determining factor for Idrīs’s immediate proclamation as caliph in Ceuta. However, Ḥasan never appeared as heir on Yaḥyā’s coins. Only his uncle Idrīs, who also became the ruler of Ceuta, did.81 This would explain why, as suggested by al-Bakrī,82 in that very place he proclaimed himself caliph, adopting the laqab al-ʿAzīz bi-llāh83 and, in that same year, departed for the Iberian Peninsula where he proclaimed himself in Malaga84 under the nickname of Mutaʾayyad bi-llāh (“The one helped by God”).85 He was the rightful successor. The fact that Idrīs [I] took a new laqab upon arriving in Malaga has been interpreted as a political shift whereby he ceased to support the Idrīsid cause, symbolized by the title al-ʿAzīz bi-llāh, and adopted a new Umayyad line of continuity. Thus, he abandoned his North African orientation to focus more on al-Andalus.86 Historiographic records would have us believe, in line with what is stated in the Crónica anónima (The Anonymous Chronicle), that Idrīs [I] died on 16 Muḥarram 431/October 8th 1039, or at least in the same year, days after the victory over the ʿAbbādid army.87 However, 78. M. J. Viguera Molíns, “Las Taifas,” chap. III of Los Reinos de Taifas. Al-Andalus en el siglo XI, vol. VIII de Historia de España Menéndez Pidal (Madrid, 1994), 74; M. J. Viguera Molíns, El Islam en Aragón (Zaragoza, 1995), 61. 79. Prieto and Vives, Los Reyes de Taifas, 225-227. 80. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 216; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 181. 81. Regarding the identification of Idrīs as heir in Yaḥyā’s issues cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 183. 82. al-Bakrī, Al-masālik wa-al-mamālik, ed. Le Baron de Slane (Algier, 1913), 133. To date, it is the only Arabic source known to have reported this information, whose credibility has been confirmed recently by numismatics. 83. The first to highlight this news were J. J. Rodríguez Lorente and T. Ibrahim, Numismática de Ceuta musulmana (Madrid, 1987), 41. 84. Ibn ʿIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān III (Arabic), 144; Spanish trans. Maíllo Salgado, 126; Primera Crónica General de España, ed. R. Menéndez Pidal with study by D. Catalán. vol. II (Madrid, 1977), 465. 85. Cf. M. Vega Martín and S. Peña Martín, “Un dirham a nombre del ḥammūdí Idrīs al-ʿAzīz bi-[A]llāh (luego llamado al-Mutaʾayyid bi-[A]llāh),” Al-Qanṭara XXV, 1 (2004), 245-251. 86. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 155, following the considerations of Vega Martín and Peña Martín, “Un dirham a nombre del ḥammūdí Idrīs al-ʿAzīz bi-[A]llāh.” 87. Crónica anónima, 18-19. All the authors who have dealt with the subject thus far date the death of Idrīs [I] in 431, except for Codera, who underscored that “according to some author” the events took place in the year 430 (Codera y Zaidín, “Estudio crítico sobre la historia,” 448) and Guillén Robles, who indicated, in a footnote, that Arabic authors disagree on the date of these events, but failed to specify to which authors they referred (Guillén Robles, Málaga musulmana, 65, nota 1). Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 187 numismatic studies have raised many questions about this date, given that we know issues were made by his successor, Ḥasan al-Mustanṣir, in 430/1038–1039. To Wasserstein, these issues prove that Ḥasan forestalled the demise of Idrīs [I] by minting coins in his own name in Ceuta because Idrīs [I] had changed his mind about his succession in favor of his own son, Yaḥyā Ḥayyūn al-Qāʾim.88 This hypothesis has been countered by Rosado Llamas,89 who sees the contradictory dates as evidence of a possible “internal problem in the capital before the succession” upon the caliph’s death.90 In my opinion, the numismatic evidence does confirm what is stated in al-Ḥumaydī’s Jadhwa: that he died in the year 430/1038–1039.91 On the other hand, the issues struck in Ceuta on behalf of Idrīs [I] indicate that al-Najā al-ʿAlawī could well have been the caliph’s ḥājib.92 His power continued to grow during Ḥasan al-Mustanṣir’s caliphate, so that his name came to occupy a more prestigious position on his coins.93 In some of the typologies of Idrīs [I] and Ḥasan, we find, next to al-Najā, a name usually read as Ḥabūn, Harras, Haras, Harāsh, Harās, Khalaf or Hanzun, which I believe must be read as Hārūn. He was probably a member of the Banū Hārūn, from the Algarve, of the Banū Salah, or of the Azdāja, who was in service to caliph Idrīs [I] and, succeedingly, to Ḥasan al-Mustanṣir, under whom he would occupy a prominent political position.94 Another unidentified person also appears on the peninsular issues of Idrīs [I], whose name, I suggest, must be read as Khayrūn instead of Shahwar, Hanzún, Ḥabūn or Khabrūn.95 Although it has been claimed that he was a mint worker,96 he must have held a relevant political office, as is the case for all of the individuals who appear on Ḥammūdid coins. Furthermore, the prosperity that prevailed in his territories, as described in the literary sources,97 clearly contradicts the argument in numismatic studies regarding the virtual disappearance of dinars and a drastic reduction in fineness in the case of dirhams.98 However, based on the data we have at present, this theory cannot be maintained, as 47.8% of the known monetary production consisted of dinars. This would apply exclusively to the case of the al-Andalus mint, since we only know of one dinar, as opposed to the ten 88. Wasserstein, The Caliphate in the West, 85-87. 89. Cf his arguments in Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 165-166. 90. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 160. 91. al-Ḥumaydī, Jadhwa, transl. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, para. 26. See the historiographical debate with respect to this topic in Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 237-238. 92. Type Ariza IdI4.-5; cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 233-235. 93. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 248-250. 94. Type Ariza IdI6; cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 235-237. For Ḥasan al-Mustanṣir bi-Llāh’s issues cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 250-253. 95. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 231-233. 96. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 158-159. 97. M. J. Viguera Molíns, Los Reinos de Taifas y las invasiones magrebíes (Al-Andalus del XI al XIII) (Madrid, 1992), 114, referring to Ibn al-Khatīb, Aʿmāl, 140 and Dhayl Bayān III, 289. 98. Rodríguez Lorente and Ibrahim, Numismática de Ceuta musulmana, 41. 188 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) Maghrebi ones. Notwithstanding, there is proof of the existence of dinars from all years of his caliphate, except for the year 428/1036–1037, from which none have been preserved.99 3.6. Ḥasan al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh (r. 430–431/1039–1040 to 434/1042–1043) Ḥasan was proclaimed caliph in Ceuta, where he was at the time due to his standing as heir.100 From there, he headed to Malaga to seize power; the city had been taken from him by his cousin Yaḥyā [II] b. Idrīs, of whose ephemeral caliphate there is no numismatic record. It has also been suggested that Yaḥyā’s appellation, al-Qāʾim, rather than referring to the laqab, al-Qāʾim bi-amr Allāh, could have been in reference to the conspiratorial role attributed to him, meaning “the rebel” or “the insurgent,” as the name never appears complete.101 Once in power, Ḥasan incarcerated his brother Idrīs b. Yaḥyā, and although textual sources suggest that the act was arbitrary, this could not have been the case. Although it is not mentioned in the chronicles, the typology Ariza Ḥa3 could serve as evidence of Idrīs b. Yaḥyā’s designation as his brother Ḥasan’s heir, which would explain that a rift, perceived as a threat by Ḥasan, led him to imprison his brother in Airós. His designation as heir justified his subsequent release and proclamation as caliph. However, if on the contrary the Idrīs mentioned on the coin referred instead to the son left by Ḥasan in Ceuta, thus signifying his designation as heir, it could well be said that status, counter to his uncle’s aspirations, was the reason for the disagreement between the brothers and the ensuing imprisonment of Idrīs b. Yaḥyā. In either case, Ḥasan’s actions would be justified.102 There are only nine extant exemplars bearing the name of Ḥasan and all, except for one, whose existence has been questioned,103 were struck in Ceuta. Wasserstein sees this as evidence of an absence of control over Malaga. Rosado Llamas, on the other hand, attributes it to an economic downturn resulting from the lack of raw materials on the peninsula “offset by the Ceuta reserves,” which runs counter to the economic information in the textual sources.104 In my opinion, the economic decline is not so much evidenced by the lack of raw materials as by the loss of quality of the Ḥammūdid currency that begins to be apparent at this time. However, I also believe that the peninsular coinages simply have not been discovered yet, since denying their existence would imply that Ḥasan al-Mustanṣir did not make use of the caliphal prerogative of issuing currency in the same capital of his caliphate, which was his center of power. And even if this might have happened occasionally, the practice would not have been sustained over time, given the duration of his government and the economic news reported by the textual sources.105 99. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 241. 100. It appeared as such in the last series of the issues of Idrīs [I]. See the most recent cataloging proposal in Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 229. 101. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 161. 102. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 253-254. 103. Type Ariza Ḥa3. 104. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 165. 105. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 255-256. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 189 3.7. The Innovations of Idrīs [II] b. Yaḥyā (r. 434/1024–1043 to 446/1054–1055) and His Likely Dissociation from Shīʿīsm during His Second Reign. During his first period in power, Idrīs [II] had continued the numismatic graphic program with Shīʿī connotations introduced by his grandfather, which entailed maintaining the octogram as well as innovatively adding the hexagon and the hexagram, or “Seal of Solomon,” as I previously discussed. However, during his second reign in Malaga, there was a turning point. First, numismatic studies have been able to confirm that Idrīs [II] actually took the laqab al-Ẓāfir bi-ḥawl Allāh, which according to al-Bunnāhī, he adopted upon his return to Malaga.106 Thus, he introduced it on the monetary dies,107 so that it would become the defining characteristic of the issues of his second government, which, in turn, allows us to clear up any doubts about when his second period in power began. It can now be dated to 445/1053–1054.108 However, it is noteworthy that Idrīs [II] kept his first laqab, which can also be seen on his issues. Although this is an uncommon occurrence, it was paralleled by the issues of the ʿAbbādids, which demonstrates a unique case among caliphal issuances in al-Andalus, and, more specifically, among those of the Ḥammūdids; typically, when a caliph adopted different honorary titles (such as Idrīs [I] for instance), he did not have them concurrently appear on his coinages. Even more important though is the fact that both laqabs are theoretically contradictory in their possible religious overtones. While al-ʿĀlī bi-llāh has a significant pro-ʿAlī connotation,109 al-Ẓāfir bi-ḥawl Allāh, previously used by Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn after his return to Cordova, has no such implication, and resembles the root ẒFR, which appears in several laqabs that evoke strictly “personal” triumphs. Secondly, Idrīs [II] introduced two other innovative elements that would define the Ḥammūdid currency as a precursor to Almoravid minting. The first of these was the introduction, for the first and only time on a caliphal coin in al-Andalus, of the title walī ʿahd al-muslimīn (“heir [to the emir] of the Muslims”) (type Ariza IdII11). Idrīs [II] himself was designated as amīr al-muslimīn on the appointment record of the qāḍī of Malaga, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Ḥasan.110 Therefore, the Almoravids were neither the first nor the only ones to use this title as it has been argued; unlike the Almoravids, who adopted this title in order to avoid using the title of amīr al-muʾminīn, which was reserved for the caliph of Baghdad, Idrīs [II] kept this caliphal title and incorporated it onto his coins. Hence, in my opinion, 106. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 180, coinciding with the textual interpretation of A. Cuellas in his translation of al-Bunnāhī, Kitāb al-Marqaba al-ʿUlyā, transl. A. Cuellas, ed. Celia del Moral, Al-Marqaba al-ʿUlyā de al-Nubāhī (La atalaya suprema sobre el cadiazgo y el muftiazgo) (Granada, 2001). 107. Until recently, the monetary legend had been considered to have propitiatory value ( or ), however, Rosado Llamas has identified the text as the laqab of Idrīs [II]. Concerning its different readings and interpretations, see Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 272-274. 108. On the issue of the timing of his second government, see Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 274. 109. Acién Almansa, “Los ḥammūdíes,” 56; F. Clément, Pouvoir et légitimité en Espagne musulmane à l’époque des taifas (ve-xie siècle). L’imam fictif (Paris, 1997), 251; Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 169-170. 110. Concerning this figure cf. M. I. Calero Secall, “Un personaje clave en la conquista de la Málaga Ḥammūdí por los zīríes,” Baética 8 (1985), especially 542. الظافر باهلل الظافر هواهلل 190 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) his adoption of this title signifies a reassertion of sovereignty after his confrontation with Muḥammad al-Mahdī’s supporters during his attempt to dominate al-Andalus. Actually, the appearance of the title on the coin could have represented the reaction of al-Andalus to the new Almoravid power that was emerging in the Maghreb, in which case, on the one hand, it would reaffirm the integrating consciousness of al-Andalus as a region of the Dār al-Islām; and on the other hand, it would reaffirm the Ḥammūdid claim to leadership, even during this period of time, in which historiography regards them as nothing more than another taifa.111 The second innovative element that appeared on the currency was the introduction of Surah 3:84 of the Qurʾan112 as a marginal legend on the reverse of a typology. This was another novelty added by Idrīs II to al-Andalus currency, evident in its concentrically arranged legends (type Ariza IdII12). This arrangement has been deemed an imitation of Fāṭimid coinages and, consequently, a reference to Shīʿīsm,113 which runs counter to the use of said verse, which was used by Sunni Malikis as their paradigm against Barghawāṭa heterodoxy and Fāṭimid “apostasy.” In my view, the contemporaneity and similarity of Ifrīqiya’s Zirid specimens to those of Idrīs [II] belie the idea that the concentric alignment of the legends can be interpreted as proof of Shīʿīsm. Far from being interpretable as a sign of heterodoxy, this typology could be seen as pointing to a reaffirmation of the Ḥammūdid caliph’s orthodoxy, although it should not be ruled out that Idrīs sought to strengthen the support of the Zirids of the Taifa of Granada by sharing some monetary traits with the branch of the Zirids of Ifrīqiya. Both the title of “Emir of the Muslims” and the Qurʾanic quotation were later adopted by the Almoravids, becoming their predominant monetary texts and characteristic of their monetary issues.114 Therefore, the new laqab adopted by Idrīs [II] and the legends of his new monetary typologies seem to point to the notion that he dissociated himself from Shīʿīsm in his second government, undertaking, as had his grandfather, ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd, a skillful synthesis of both traditions. This would explain why Idrīs also kept his first laqab, the concentric disposition of the legends, and the incorporation of the title walī ʿahd al-muslimīn, which had first appeared on the coins of ʿAbbāsid caliph, al-Mahdī, and which had been used to designate the eighth Shīʿī imām, ʿAlī al-Rida. Furthermore, the only economic news conveyed by the literary sources115 portrays Idrīs [II] as a charitable man: “He would give 500 dinars every day” to charity. This news suggests that the dearth of this caliph’s gold specimens is due solely to the fact that they had not yet reached us. As for silver, signs of decline in the quality of the dirhams progressively become 111. Concerning the typology and the use of the title walī ʿahd al-muslimīn on currency and other media cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 279-280. 112. “Should anyone follow a religion other than Islam, it shall never be accepted from him, and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.” 113. F. Clément, “L’apport de la numismatique pour l’étude des taifas andalouses du ve/xie siècle,” Archéologie Islamique 4 (1994), 66. 114. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 280-283. 115. al-Ḥumaydī, Jadhwa, I: 46-49, transl. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, para. 31. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 191 more apparent, which was related not so much to “the need to make payments to the Zirids and the Ifranids,” as has been stated,116 but rather to the so-called “Silver Crisis,” which affected to a greater or lesser extent all of al-Andalus.117 3.8. Muḥammad [I] al-Mahdī (r. 438/1047 to 444/1052–1053) The caliphal title with which Muḥammad [I] al-Mahdī assumed the caliphate has been the object of careful analysis by several authors, due to its important connotations. While Wasserstein claims that the laqab is devoid of any special meaning,118 in the eyes of Fierro, it is a response to “eschatological resonances associated with the concept of fitnah.”119 In contrast, Clément suggests that it refers to ʿAlī, the term mahdī as the Shiʿi epithet par excellence.120 This, however, has been recently refuted by Rosado Llamas, who considers it simply “another pro-Alīd laqab.”121 That said, from my viewpoint, and taking into account that there are no elements on the coin that link him to Shīʿīsm, the use of the laqab (al-Mahdī) by Muḥammad [I] may have another possible reading. On the one hand, let us not forget that Muḥammad [I] took the title of al-Mahdī when he was proclaimed caliph against his cousin Idrīs [II] al-ʿĀlī, from whom the caliphate was taken. On the other hand, in Islam, the concept of the mahdī has not always been necessarily associated with Shīʿī messianism. In fact, Sunni mahdīs, more than being drawn to spirituality, have generally been oriented towards management, “external organization,” “perfecting collective affairs,” suppressing internal conflicts, and subjugating infidels.122 Consequently, by adopting the title of al-Mahdī, the new caliph presented himself as a reformer who would put an end to his predecessor’s mismanagement and the conflict that ravaged al-Andalus, thus legitimizing himself against the deposed Idrīs [II]. This image of Muḥammad [I] would complement the one depicted in some chronicles.123 After his proclamation as caliph, Muḥammad [I] named his brother and fellow prisoner, Ḥasan, his heir, using the laqab of al-Sāmī. Literary sources discuss a rift between the two brothers that resulted in the departure of Ḥasan to Gumāra territory, where he was recognized in Oued Laou (Wādī Lāw), and from where he maintained his claim to the 116. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 173. 117. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 292-294. 118. D. J. Wasserstein, The Rise and Fall of the Party Kings. Politics and Society in Islamic Spain 1002-1086 (Princeton, New Jersey, 1985), 125, note 21. In Wasserstein, The Caliphate in the West, there is no mention of this matter. 119. Also applicable to the cases of Muḥammad b. Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār, and the last Ḥammūdid, Yaḥyā b. Idrīs b. ʿAlī, as we shall see. Cf. M. Fierro, “La religión,” in M. J. Viguera Molíns (ed.). Los Reinos de Taifas. Al-Andalus en el s. XI, Historia de España Menéndez Pidal, vol. VIII-1 (Madrid, 1994), 399. 120. Clément, Pouvoir et légitimité en Espagne musulmane, 251. 121. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí, 174. 122. M. Fierro, “Sobre monedas de época almohade: I. El dinar del Cadí ʿIyāḍ que nunca existió. II. Cuando se acuñaron las primeras monedas almohades y la cuestión de la licitud de acuñar moneda.” Al-Qanṭara XXVII, 2 (2006), 464-465. See also P. Crone, Medieval Islamic political thought (Edinburgh, 2004), 251-252; M. García Arenal, Messianism and Puritanical Reform. Mahdis of the Muslim West (Leiden, 2006), 157-192. 123. Crónica anónima, 22; al-Ḥumaydī, Jadhwa, transl. Rosado Llamas, La dinastía ḥammūdí Jadhwa, para. 33. 192 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) caliphate. However, the numismatic evidence suggests that he ruled the Maghrebi territory on behalf of his brother, minting coins in his name until 441/1049–1050, in his capacity as heir to the caliphate. Since Ceuta, the traditional seat of the heirs, was in favor of Idrīs [II], Muḥammad [I] sent him to the territory in which he would find support, that of the Ghumāra, thus securing recognition from the Maghreb.124 The fact that the northern mines of present-day Morocco were held by the Maghrāwa, who were also supporters of Idrīs [II], explains why the “Silver Crisis” was more evident in the case of Muḥammad al-Mahdī’s currency than in the currency of Idrīs [II]. This crisis also affected the Taifas since the passage of the Strait was controlled by pro-Ḥammūdid tribes. After the disappearance of the Ḥammūdids, in the second half of the 5th/11th century, the mines in Central and Southern Maghreb would be brought under control by the Almoravids. Neither the Berber tribes of the north nor the Almoravids recognized the legitimacy of the Taifas, which explains the lack of silver supply on their part.125 Last, but not least, the new cataloging proposal of the specimens attributed to Muḥammad al-Mahdī of Malaga, and those of his namesake of Algeciras, clarifies both their dates of death, thus solving the chronological discrepancy between the textual sources and the issues,126 dating the former to the year 444/1052–1053 and the latter to 446/1054–1055.127 4. The Sicilian Fate of the Last Ḥammūdids After the demise of Muḥammad [I] al-Mahdī, there is no numismatic evidence of the recognition of another member of the dynasty as caliph. However, respect for the final members of the Ḥammūdid dynasty persisted in the Maghreb. There, both sons of Idrīs [II], Muḥammad [II] al-Mustaʿalī,128 and ʿAbd Allāh129 settled. ʿAbd Allāh’s son, Muḥammad, who was rumored to be the Mahdī, settled in the Sicilian court of Roger. The Ḥammūdids were present on the island until the twelfth century, through the converted branch of Chamutus’s offspring, in the regions of Castrogiovanni (Enna) and Calabria (in the vicinity of Mileto), and through the Muslim branch, which was equally favored by the Normans, and represented by the Banū Ḥajar, amongst whom Abū al-Qāsim Ḥammūd stood out.130 5. Circulation and Imitations of Ḥammūdid Currency Coin hoards reveal that the coinage of ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd, al-Qāsim, and Yaḥyā was used widely across and beyond al-Andalus. However, the degree of dispersion of their 124. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 311-314. 125. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 319-322. 126. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 306-309. 127. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 314-316. 128. Cf. Ariza Armada, Estudio sobre las monedas de los Ḥammūdíes, 571-574. 129. Grandfather of the geographer al-Idrīsī, author of Libro de Roger. Cf. F. Pons Boigues, Ensayo bio-bibliográfico sobre los historiadores y geógrafos arábigo españoles (Madrid, 1898, reprint Madrid, 1993), 231-240; Oman, “Al-Idrīsī,” EI2. 130. A. Amara and A. Nef, “Al-Idrīsī et les Ḥammūdides de Sicile: nouvelles données biographiques sur l’auteur du Livre de Roger,” Arabica XLVIII (2001), 121-127. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) The Ḥammūdid Caliphate: A New Look through the Lens of Numismatics • 193 successors’s coins gradually decreased as their sovereignty and power became increasingly limited. Despite this, only those coins struck in the name of the last of the Ḥammūdid rulers, Muḥammad al-Mahdī, have not been discovered in what was then Christian territory.131 Their circulation, nonetheless, was not limited to Christian territories alone. Given the quality and prestige of their coins, the dinars issued in the name of the first three caliphs were copied by the Counts of Barcelona. These imitations, known as mancuses, were made by minters, such as the Jews Bonhom (Fig. 14) and Eneas, or by the counts themselves (Fig. 15). They had coins minted in the name of the Ḥammūdid caliphs, and had their names appear on some typologies, as did the local powers in al-Andalus. In this way, they had at their disposal high-quality, prestigious coins that were accepted by both Muslim and Christian populations, but which in turn were an expression of the recognition of, and even vassalage to, Ḥammūdid sovereignty, at least the one exercised by the first three caliphs of the dynasty.132 The mancuses that imitated Yaḥyā’s coinages, and probably others as well, traveled to places as far away as Kiev, in Old Russia (Rus), thus becoming material evidence of 131. They circulated through the Taifas of Seville, Cordova, Toledo, Valencia, Denia and Majorca, Saragossa and, of course, Malaga, as well as through the Christian Catalonian Counties and the Kingdom of Navarre, i.e., present-day Cordova, Malaga, Seville, Alicante, Valencia, Majorca, Guadalajara, Soria, Saragossa, Navarre and Barcelona. On Ḥammūdid currency hoards and circulation cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 35-72. 132. Cf. Ariza Armada, De Barcelona a Orán, 339-349. Figure 14. Bilingual Mancus (BONNOM). Figure 15. Bilingual Mancus (RAIMVNDVS COMES). Gabinete Numismático de Barcelona 15151. 194 • AlmudenA ArizA ArmAdA Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018) the contact between the Sephardim and the Jewish community of the first Eastern Slavic state.133 6. Conclusion The numismatic record appears to show that ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd was appointed ḥājib and his brother, al-Qāsim, vizier, by the caliph Sulaymān. From the moment the first Ḥammūdid became governor of Ceuta, the city acquired new significance as the seat of the heirs to the Ḥammūdid caliphate. The rule of the Maghreb would fall to them. It was actually ʿAlī who started the first mint in Ceuta, which was opened to cover the expenses of the Berber troops who were loyal to Caliph Sulaymān, and whose issues circulated widely across the Iberian Peninsula. Whether or not the letter in which Hishām [II] offered to appoint him as his successor to the caliphate existed, ʿAlī b. Ḥammūd was recognized as such by all who supported his uprising against Sulaymān. After his proclamation as caliph, a decisive step in the development of the subsequent Sharīfism, he skillfully synthesized the Sunni and the Shīʿī traditions, in order to enjoy acceptance both in al-Andalus and in the Maghreb. Having said that, his Shīʿī orientation must have been much greater than has been accepted by historiography. This inclination materialized through a monetary symbolic program that would be continued by his direct successors, thus marking the differentiation of this dynastic branch that would confront the rest of the branches with its claim to caliphal power. The third Ḥammūdid, Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī, chose Malaga as the new seat of the caliphate, retaining his caliphal sovereignty despite the dubiously legitimate abolition of the caliphate in Cordova. The Ḥammūdid caliphate enjoyed an extensive and continued recognition in the Maghreb (which even reached Oran), where the different Berber tribes recognized the caliphs of one or another branch of the dynasty. That never happened in the cases of either the alleged Hishām [II] or the Taifas, thus explaining the so-called “Silver Crisis.” Ḥammūdid numismatics sheds light on some of the contradictory dates for the dynasty’s history. It also shows that all the individuals appearing on their coins held high political positions. Some of these individuals, in fact, even bore the title of ḥājib, as was the case of al-Najā al-ʿAlawī. The numismatic evidence also shows that the innovative monetary policy of Idrīs [II] was a direct precursor, in several respects, to Almoravid currency. The widespread circulation of Ḥammūdid coinage in the Peninsula, including Christian territories, as well as the fact that the dinars of the first three Ḥammūdid caliphs were imitated in the Catalan Counties, evinces the quality and prestige of the Ḥammūdid gold coinage, imitations of which reached territories as distant as the Principality of Kiev. Following the disappearance of the Ḥammūdid caliphate, the trail of the last Ḥammūdids can be followed to Sicily, where their presence has been confirmed until the twelfth century. 133. V. 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