The political and cultural connotations to images on Seljuk coins

Abstract

Coins received great attention from the Seljuk rulers and sultans because they were considered one of the most important symbols for expressing the ruler’s power when he took the throne. In addition, they were considered a medium used by the sultan to express the political and cultural events that happened in his time by engraving the image of the sultan or symbols that expressed aspects of his rule on his coins. In this dissertation, I study the political and cultural connotations of the images on the Seljuk coins, and by delineating the political and cultural events that took place at the time of the sultan, I consider how the engraved images were linked to events. The Seljuk sultans minted coins depicting a horseman riding a horse and holding a sword or spear, in addition to scenes of the sultan on the throne, which appeared on some coins, and the inscription of the sun and the lion that appeared on the coins of Sultan Kay Khusraw II. I show how these images were engraved as a result of political and cultural events, such as wars between the brothers over the rule and control of the Seljuk lands, marriages and the culture of hunting of the Seljuk sultans. I compare the images that appeared on the coins with those on the coins of the Arab kingdoms before Islam in the areas controlled by the Seljuk, and the influence of the Byzantine and Sassanid coins on Seljuk coins pointed towards Islam’s position in the imagery.