Description
Infidels who routed him-the Queen whose treasury was enriched by 400,000 French livres. In No. 470 (Plate VI.) we have another coin struck during the virtual reign of Shejer-ed-durr, but after she had invested Eybek with the name of Sultan. The coin is struck from an old die ofEs-Salih Ayyoob, Shejer-ed-durr’s former husband and master, but the name Eybek is inserted at the bottom of the reverse area, and, by reason of double striking, also occurs, inverted, at the top of the obverse area. This is the only coin bearing the name of Eybek with which I am acquainted, except a copper coin published by Frederic Soret."‘ After these two remarkable deenars, the rest of the Memlook coins call for little notice, since they seldom offer anything very unusual in their inscriptions, and are struck at the ordinary mint places. The collection, however, is exceedingly rich in this long, if not interesting, series, pos- sessing no fewer than 235 coins of the two dynasties, whose rule extended to about 260 years. At first sight it will appear that the collection is deficient in the coinage of a good many of the kings: but a closer examina- tion will show that these kings’ reigns were always very short, often lasting only a few months ; and so the actual deficiency is less than it seems. Of the twenty-five Sultans of the Bahree Dynasty, the British Museum possesses coins of all but six, and the collective reigns of these six covered barely five years. Of the twenty-four Burjee Sultans the collection has coins of only eleven: but the reigns of these eleven filled up about one hundred and twenty out of the total of one hundred and thirty years, thus leaving only ten years for the remaining thirteen Sul- tans’ reigns put together.