SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is the first attempt of its kind to contribute to the history of the Cairo mint, a very important economic institution in the Ayyubid state organisation in the 13th century A.D. The detailed discussion of the subject is primarily based on entirely new material, drawn from an unpublished and hardly known Arabia manuscript, entitled 'Secrets of the Mint' and composed by Mansur ibn Ba'ra. The author of the thesis submitted the extremely difficult and corrupted text to a critical analysis which revealed that the treatise of ibn Ba'ra was written between A.D. 1218 - 1225 (A.H. 615 - 622 ).The interpretation of the invaluable material, contained in the manuscript, permitted the author to investigate all aspects of the mint of Cairo. Its administrative significance, its system of control, its internal org ganisation, its technical problems, finally its monetary issues and methods of production. The discussion is presented in the light of contemporary historical background, based both on textual and numismatic source material. It is preceded by an outline of the minting policy of the Arab Caliphatemand a more detailed summary of the history of mints in the Muslim Egypt down to the reign of al-Kamil (A.D. 1218 - 38).The author of the thesis also challenges present methods of presentation of numismatic catalogues, which, in his opinion, do not fully answer the requirements of modern historical research. A full copy of the manuscript of ibn Ba'ra, with its English paraphrase complete the scope of the thesis.