The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

Michael Broome Collection of Islamic Coins
1. 2. 3.
1. Abbasids, gold dinar of al-
Muti‘ (946–74) struck at
Zabid (in Yemen) in 952/3
(AH 340).
2. Seljuqs of Rum, silver
dirham struck by Qilij Arslan
IV (2nd reign, 1257–66) at
Ma’danshahr in 1259/60
(AH 658).
3. Safavids, silver five-shahi
piece struck by Sultan
Husayn (1694–1722) at
Tabriz in 1715/16 (AH 1128).
Part of the Michael Broome
Collection of 3,577 Oriental
coins accepted by H.M.
Government in lieu of
Inheritance Tax and allocated
to the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Islamic coins are among the most
beautiful and fascinating forms of money.
Each is a small historical document, often
naming the local ruler and his overlord,
and the place and year in which the coin
was struck. Unable to include pictorial
images in their designs, the artists went
to great lengths to weave the scripts into
elegant geometric forms.
This collection of 3,577 Oriental
coins, mainly Islamic of the 7th to 20th
centuries, from Muslim Spain to India,
was formed by Michael Broome
(1927–97), a leading figure in Islamic
numismatics. In 1970 he founded the
Oriental Numismatic Society – an
international organisation with a world-
wide membership – and he acted as its
Secretary-General until his death.
The collection, which doubles the
Fitzwilliam Museum’s holdings of Islamic
coins, is a rich resource, combining a
representative series illustrating the
monetary systems in most parts of the
Muslim world, with more detailed study
material for dynasties that particularly
interested Mr Broome, such as the
Abbasids, Ilkhanids, Safavids and
Ottomans. The coins of Seljuqs of Rum,
from 12th-/13th-century Anatolia, were
the subject of his last major study, shortly
to be published, and his collection of
over 600 specimens is one of the most
systematic that exists.
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Major Acquisitions