The Fāṭimid coins from Sicily in al-Andalus: the Jabonerías hoard (Murcia, Spain)

In 2012 a gold coin hoard was recovered in the course of the archaeological activities: the excavation of an Islamic house built on the XI century in Jabonerías street, Murcia (Spain). The coins were inside a ceramic pot hidden in one wall of the house. The hoard is composed of 4 gold objects and 424 coins from northern Africa and Sicily, mostly Fāṭimid coins, and the fractions dinars from the Andalusian Party kings. The Fāṭimid coins account for 65 % of the total, and were minted in the name of al-Ḥākim, al- Zāhir y al-Mustanṣir caliphs. Most of them, 82 %, were struck in Palermo’s mint, in Sicily, when the island wasn´t under direct Fāṭimid control no longer. At that time, Sicily was under the rule of the Kalbid dynasty. The Sicilian coins abound in other Andalusian hoards dated in eleven century -over 60 hoards with Fāṭimid coins have been recorded from Al-Andalus-, and the Sicilian issues are majority in several of them.This paper has been carried out within the framework of the research project HAR2015-67111-P, El sitio de las cosas: relación entre la cultura material y los espacios construidos a la luz de la arqueología (siglos VI-XIV), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness