დავით IV აღმაშენებლის არაბულენოვანი მონეტის გარე წარწერა

Abstract

The financial reforms of king David were directly related to Georgia’s economic promotion. According to the Arab historian Al-Fariq, David minted copper coins for Muslims. Certain coins come to this description. They have name David son of Giorgi and name of sultan inscribed. Those belong to “irregular” struck coins because they do not have standard form and weight. There was a dispute for a long time about the identity of the king who minted those coins. At the beginning the name of sultan was read as “sultan Barkiaruk” (1094-1105). Later, G. Japaridze explored those coins and read the name as sultan – “Muhammad b. Mahmud”. Muhammad b. Mahmud was contemporary of king David V (1155) and reigned in 1153-1160. But in recent years new species were discovered which reject the latter opinion. I. Paghava published new species and put forward his own opinion that the name of sultan on the coins must be read as “Mahmud b. Muhammad”. He was sultan of Iraq and North Iran and reigned in 1118-1131. The period of his rule coincides with the epoch of David the Builder, as well as the estimated years of minting of those coins (1122-1125). None of those coins have even the smallest fragments of circle inscription. This is quite natural for small coins and especially for the coins of “irregular” struck. Recently found two new species made it possible to read some of the fragments of circle inscription on reverse. We can read the Arabic inscription as لا لله – which is the part of the Islamic formula – اله الا لله (There is no God but Allah alone).