Coinage of the Eretna Principality

Abstract

Following the rule of the Ilkhanides in Asia Minor and succeeding to the former Seljuq seats of Sivas and Kayseri, Alaeddin Eretna, the founder of the Eretna Principality, originally served as a vassal to the Ilkhanides and the Egyptian Mamlukes and minted coins in the name of these two realms in the cities over which he had power. In 1343, on the defeat of the Ilkhanide army at Karanbük, he and the other independent Turkic principalities in Asia Minor proceeded to mint coins in their own names. Until Eretna's death in 1352, gold and silver coins were minted at the fifteen centers under his rulemost prominently, Sivas and Kayseri. After his death, coins continued to be minted at various dates at an even greater number of urban sites in the names of his sons, Gıyaseddin Mehmed and Izzeddin Cafer, and his grandson, Alaaddin Ali. Control over the principality, upon the death of Alaaddin Ali, passed to Kadı Burhâneddin Ahmed in 1380.