The Syrian Fulūs of the Mamluk Sultan al-Ẓāhir Barqūq

This essay focuses on the fulūs of al-Ẓāhir Barqūq (784–91/1382–89 and 792–801/1390–99). In a previous study, I analyzed the production of large copper fulūs minted in Cairo (from 759/1357–58) and Alexandria (from 770/1368–69) through the end of Barqūq's rule. The metrological data collected for that study supported the evidence from the chronicles that these copper coins were struck to a weight standard of one mithqāl. That study did not discuss Barqūq's copper coinage struck in the Syrian mints, however, but this one does.