أثر الیهود على نقود السلطان سلیم الأول فى مصر (923هـ/1517م – 926هـ/1520م)

Abstract

This research is concerned in the role of the Jews during the reign of sultan Selim the first, as they played an important role in striking coins in the Egyptian mint during the Ottoman era with their direct supervision on it, getting the row metal to it, and their work as exchangers. These Jews working in the mint damaged the gold, silver and copper coins, who pushed Ibrahim the Jew –master of the mint- to take from the Muslim’s money. Also, not engraving the coronation date of sultan Selim, and only minting the date of struck on the Egyptian gold coins might be a proof that the Jews wanted to show that there is no legitimacy for the sultan in Egypt as he is considered as an invader on the Mamluks. Also, it was mentioned that the Jewish masters were keen to keep the Mamluk traditions on sultan Selim’s coins in the form of writing the inscriptions of the obverse and reverse in horizontal lines inside two circles, along with the decoration of waves from left to right. Besides, the research shows the role of Jews in engraving the David’s star on sultan Selim’s coins for the first time in the history of Ottoman coinage, which was obvious between the lines of the reverse inscriptions.

Keywords

• Jews
• the Sultan Selim I
• coins
• the Ottoman era