IFAO

This article will consider attribution problems raised by the coinage of the last Zayyanids of Tlemcen. The discussion is in response to fresh numismatic data as well as a restudy of chronicles concerning political relations between Marinids and Nasrids on the one hand, and Zayyanids and Ottomans on the other. Emphasis is given to a group of gold coins issued by the Zayyanids under the Ottoman Suzerainty during the first half of the 16th century. These coins bear in their legends reference to both political authorities: on one face the name of the Zayyanid and on the other face the name of the Ottoman Sultan.

It is on this issue that controversy between numismatists and historians exists. The coins concerned were initially attributed to the Marinids; the main criterion for the attribution was based on the political alliance contracted, according to Ibn Ḫaldūn, between the Nasrid Muḥammad III (701-708/1302-1309) and the Marinid Sultan Abū l-Rabīʿ (708-710/1308-1310). This alliance led, according to H. Lavoix, to a monetary association between the two rulers. However some decades later, a different attribution was advanced by H. Hazard for the coins in question. Doubt concerning the accuracy of these attributions continues among scholars and therefore the aim of this paper is to reconsider these attributions and discuss their historical and numismatic criteria.