Antique Way

Medieval Ccoins of Azerbaijan

Alongside the broad circulation of Hellenistic coins in ancient Azerbaijan - Atropatheneum and Caucasian Albania - the mintage of domestic means of circulation - silver coins imitating those of Alexander the Great and the kings of Seleucia and Parthia - was launched here since the 3rd century B. C.

These coins marked the beginning of the state coinage of Azerbaijan, which by that time had built up a certain economic potential and maintained close ties with the Hellenistic cultural domain. Such imitative coins make up a substantial part of quite a few of the hoards of Hellenistic coins uncovered in Azerbaijan and are often found during archaeological excavations carried out on the territory of ancient Caucasian Albania.

The history of commodity-money relations in early medieval Azerbaijan is illustrated by numerous hoards of coins consisting of silver drachmas of Sasanid Iran, coinage of Azerbaijani mints - in Nakhichevan, Baku, Derbent, Partava (Barda) and a number of Byzantine silver, which reflects the rivalry and struggle between these great powers of the Orient for hegemony in Transcaucasia in the 6th-7th centuries A. D.

The conquest of Azerbaijan by the Arabs in the 7th century and some time later its incorporation in the Caliphate's sphere of money circulation were marked by an advancement of urban economy, crafts and trade and, as a result, by the opening of new mints (Balh al-Baiza, Al-Yazidiyya, Arran, Janza, and Azerbaijan).

From the second half of the 9th century A. D., when the caliph's power in the outlands became weakening, the powerful governors of Azerbaijan seized the opportunity to turn their administrative districts into independent states and started their own dynasties enjoying the privilege of "sikka" (the monetary privilege, or the right of coinage), Azerbaijan coinage became even more intensive.

The intensive trade and economic life of Azerbaijan, which lay on one of the major artery roads of caravan trade between South and North in the 9th-10th centuries A.D., was characterised by a new economic phenomenon - a "silver crisis" in the money trade between the countries of the Near East, including Azerbaijan, when in the period between the 11th and the early 13th centuries - the climax of the Oriental Renaissance - silver disappeared from the sphere of circulation and was eventually replaced by mainly copper coinage.

As a consequence Azerbaijani numismatics were provided with the possibility to throw light on the hitherto unknown pages of the sociopolitical history of Azerbaijan in the period of the great Nizami Gyandzhevi.

The coins of various conquerors minted in these cities reflect like a mirror the political and socio-economic situation in Azerbaijan in the 14th century.

In the 15th-16th centuries Azerbaijan economy and culture blossomed forth anew. Thanks to the efforts of the Shirvanshahs, a relative peace reigned in the northern part of Azerbaijan - Shirvan.

The land abounded in farm products, and high-standard coins - tangas of the Shirvanshahs -circulated throughout the whole of Transcaucasia, playing the role of a universal medium of payment. In the south of the country, in Arran and Azerbaijan, several states sprang up one after another under the aegis of the Turkic dynasties of Kara-koyunlu and Ak-koyunlu, and the Sefevids, which minted not only silver but also gold coins.

After the formation of the Sefevid state in the early 16th century, objective conditions were created there for the development of productive forces and the shaping up of spiritual values. The monetary system of the Sefevids based on a heavyweight 9.4-gramme silver unit reflected in a certain sense the economic and political might of that state.

However, by the end of the 16th century protracted wars with the Osmanids in the west and the Sheibanids in the east undermined the Sefevids' strength. Despite a certain revival in the first half of the 17th century, when a new monetary system based on a new unit, the 7-8-gramme abbasi, the Sefevids gave up their place to the Afsharids.

This turbulent period in the history of Azerbaijan, full of endless wars and feudal strife is eloquently illustrated by numerous hoards of 18th-century Sefevid, Osmanid, Af-sharid and Baburid silver coins, which are often in mint condition without any traces of having been in circulation.

The liberation struggle waged by the Azerbaijan people in the second half of the 18th century, which brought about the emergence of small feudal principalities - khanates - that anonymously minted silver and copper coins, ended in the annexation of Azerbaijan to Russia under the Gyulistan Peace (1813) and the Turkmanchai Peace (1828) between Iran and the Russian Empire. The khans' coinage was stopped, and Azerbaijan was incorporated in Russia's sphere of money circulation.