NEW BOOK: ISLAMIC HISTORY THROUGH COINS, 2ND ED

I am very pleased to share with you the news that the American University in Cairo Press has placed the electronic, revised edition of my Islamic History through Coins: An Analysis and Catalogue of Tenth-Century Ikhshidid Coinage, 2nd ed. (Cairo: AUC Press, 2015) on its Free e-book site at  http://www.aucpress.com/t-ebooks.aspx .

For those not familiar with the work, the second half of the book is a catalog of all the numismatic material I could find related to the Egyptian-based dynasty and is an important tool for curators, collectors, and dealers in identifying Ikhshidid coins. The first half of the book begins with an introduction for those unfamiliar with numismatic material and ends with a discussion of tenth-century Abbasid coinage.

Chapter two details what one can learn from a study of the coins issued during the governorship of the dynasty?s founder, Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid (323-34/935-69), including why al-Ikhshid put his honorific title (laqab) on his regular coinage and the possible reasons for the appearance of a Central Asian symbol (tamga) on a presentation piece.

Chapter three analyzes the coinage of the rest of the dynasty including how which part of a medieval Muslim name appeared on the coinage reflected the hierarchy of naming practices and where and why the name of Ka!fur, probably the most famous African eunuch in medieval Islamic history, appeared on coins struck outside Ikhshidid lands.

The second edition not only corrects errors from the first edition of 2006 but adds new data and examples. The first edition was a co-winner of the Samir Shamma Prize for the best book in Islamic Numismatics, Royal Numismatic Society of Great Britain, for 2006-07. As a free electronic book it may be useful for your own library, and for colleagues and even students, if this is an appropriate category for you.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web